Hold On
by mustlovecat
Summary: An off-duty incident outs Sam and Andy's relationship and forces them to navigate the difficult road of being partners on the job and off. Finally updated 08/24/12
1. The Park

**A/N **Here is my first attempt at a multi-chapter fic for Rookie Blue, though I am not sure yet how long it will be. It is a little darker than the series of one-shots I have published, though it does follow from the last one, _Eight AM _– in other words, Sam and Andy are together. I hope you enjoy. Any feedback is welcome.

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing related to _Rookie Blue_, ABC or GlobalTv. I'm just borrowing the characters for my own amusement. Though if I ever run into Ben Bass on the streets of Toronto... Oh, who am I kidding? I'd be too tongue-tied to get out a hello!

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Arriving at the scene, Sam pulled the squad car up onto the sidewalk, furrowing his brow. There were two other cruisers with their lights flashing – he was suddenly questioning why Oliver had demanded his presence for a simple assault. That was until he started crossing the park and saw her sitting there on a bench, Nash seated beside her with a comforting hand on her shoulder. The bruises were already obvious on her face, her neck, down her arms; dried blood was caked around her nose, a bad cut bleeding over her right eye. His fists clenched. And instinctively, he glanced back over his shoulder towards the squad cars. The back door to one was open, a man sitting inside with his hands cuffed behind his back. So Sam spun on his heels and started like a bat out of hell towards him.

"Sammy! C'mon, Sam, stop. Don't..."

"What the hell happened?" he demanded, his jaw tightening. He stopped and turned towards Oliver, his expression impatient.

Shaw quickly gave him the run-down: Andy had been out walking back from a small neighbourhood grocery store nearby when she had come upon a guy beating up his girlfriend at the edge of the park. She put in a call to 9-1-1, and then tried to intervene. The guy had threatened her and since she was unarmed, she had stayed back until he had appeared to take off. At that point, she had gone to check on the victim, only to get jumped from behind. She had been in the midst of fighting the guy off when Shaw and Epstein arrived on the scene, but not before she had been roughed up pretty good.

"Jesus," Sam swore under his breath. He looked back towards the cruiser angrily. "That him?"

"Yes, but—"

Swarek just nodded, and then he started his path towards the squad car once again.

This time Oliver reached out and physically grabbed him. "I'm telling you, it won't do you any good. Now, as you can see, we really didn't need any more back-up. The reason I had you called is because McNally's refusing to go to the hospital. You have a way of getting through to her." Shaw lowered his voice. "And I couldn't help noticing that this place is a hell of a lot closer to your house than it is to her apartment."

At that Sam stopped in his tracks. He noticed the curiously quirked eyebrow of his long-time friend and sighed. Andy has spent the weekend fighting the flu, and although her fever had broken just after three a.m. that morning, Sam had insisted she call in sick to their first day back on rotation. She had argued weakly, but he had won – and so he spent the day riding alone, and she had spent it curled up at his place. Apparently she had decided that she was feeling well enough to have some real food, only to discover that he had failed to do any grocery shopping over the weekend. "Not now. I have to get her to the hospital." He left Shaw before any more questions could be asked, and headed towards where Andy and Nash were sitting. Seeing him approach, Traci vacated her seat, meeting him a few feet away. "How is she?" he asked.

"Shaken. She needs to go to the hospital, but so far she's refused."

"I'll take her. When you get back to the barn, tell Jerry I'll bring her in after to sign her statement."

Nash nodded, then headed over to where Shaw, Epstein and Diaz were standing.

Sam took a deep breath, then he tentatively approached Andy. "Hey," he said, putting a hand gently on her shoulder.

She flinched and glanced up at him, her eyes glassy. She was definitely in shock.

"It's okay, sweetheart," he assured her. "I'm gonna take you over to General and get you checked out, okay?"

"I'm fine," she replied flatly, dismissively.

"Yeah, well, you're bleeding. So I'd kind of like a doctor to tell me you're fine."

She did not argue any further. It would have taken too much energy. So Sam helped her up and across the grass to where he had parked his squad car.

The short drive just a few blocks to Toronto General was silent. Andy was in her own little world, lost in her thoughts. If Sam had to guess, they were dark thoughts. True, in her eight months as a cop, she had already shot a man, she had had Ray Don Swann's hands around her neck, and she'd been held at gunpoint. However, she had never been assaulted – let alone when she was off the job and unarmed, expecting to be safe. After he parked the cruiser, he reached over to lay a hand on her shoulder to tell her they were there, and she visibly flinched once again.

Andy shrunk back, embarrassed, when she realized where she was and that it was Sam who had touched her.

"Let's get you looked at, all right? Then I'll get you home."

Once inside, Sam flashed his badge at the triage desk, and along with the uniform, it got Andy seen fairly quickly. He was almost relieved when she asked him to stay with her, knowing it was progress that she was not pushing him away.

They had been together for just over five weeks. Sam was pretty sure they had been the best five weeks of his life. They had spent most of their time together off duty, and had been permanently partnered while _on_ the job. Nobody knew about their relationship – well, nobody _had _known, at least to the best of their knowledge, before tonight. They had been good about keeping things professional while in uniform, though Sam usually tried to sneak a kiss or two when they were out on patrol between calls. He was happy, but to him, what was even better was that Andy seemed genuinely happy. He could tell she was not second-guessing herself anymore. In fact, she seemed more self-confident.

"Before we take you down for x-rays, is there any chance you could be pregnant?"

Sam escaped his musings at the question the intern had asked. His eyebrows shot up to his hairline.

"N-no. I mean, I don't think so," Andy replied quietly. "My boyfriend and I are careful. But I guess nothing's foolproof."

"We'll run a quick test then," the doctor said. "I'll send someone right in."

Left alone, Sam sat down on the edge of the stretcher Andy had been parked on in the trauma room. "How're you doing?" he asked.

"Better than the woman who got the crap beat out of her. Can you find out how she is?" she pleaded.

Sam nearly shook his head incredulously at the complete lack of regard for herself. He decided quickly that if she was not going to be concerned with her own wellbeing, then it was up to him. "Let's just worry about _you_ for right now, huh?"

Three hours later, after confirmation that she was not pregnant, a series of negative x-rays and a few stitches over her eyes, Andy was discharged with instructions to take it easy for the next few days. Sam escorted her back to Fifteen Division, where, unfortunately, things were not as simple as having Andy sign her statement for Jerry. Best pulled her into his office, concerned about making sure everything was by the book since she had gotten involved as a concerned citizen and off-duty cop, and not as a first-responder.

Swarek decided to busy himself with paperwork while he waited to take his girlfriend home, though his gaze spent more time affixed to the window of Frank's office than to the reports in front of him. The longer she was in there, the angrier he was getting that some creep had gotten his hands on her. He finally tried to distract himself by calling the hospital for an update on the woman Andy's intervention had saved. And by the time he hung up the phone, he saw both Andy and Best standing up in the office, their body language suggesting a conversation more personal than official.

Sam stood up and headed up the stairs to the Staff Sergeant's office. He hesitated only a moment before rapping on the door.

"Come on in," Frank called.

Sam walked inside, trying not to cringe at the sight of the darkening bruises on Andy's skin high-lighted by the harsh fluorescent lights. "Sorry to interrupt, but it looked as if you were just about finished."

"We were. What's up?" Best asked.

Sam glanced over at Andy. Her gaze was averted, and he could tell that she had little interest in whatever he was about to say. He was suddenly questioning what he had originally come up to say. Instead, he cleared his throat. "Um, I was just going to suggest that I take McNally home. She's been through enough tonight, don't you think?"

Frank nodded. "Agreed. And Andy, I want you to follow the doctor's orders and take the rest of the week."

At that, Andy finally acknowledged the two. "But sir—"

"It's not open for discussion. From what Swarek told me this morning, you're just getting over a nasty flu, and now the assault. Take the time, take care of yourself." His commanding tone softened then. "But if you need anything, you call."

"Thank you, Sir." She looked at Sam then. "I, uh – I'm just going to go to the locker room and clean up a bit."

He nodded. He chewed on the inside of his lip as she walked out of the office past him, his own feet failing to take him down the same path.

"Something on your mind, Sam?" Frank asked as they were left alone.

Sam hesitated for a moment before turning back to his boss – who also happened to be an old Police College buddy. "She was assaulted, Frank. Tell me he's going down for that."

"William Cormier actually looks good for a couple cold homicides. I'm handing the case over to Headquarters, considering putting Callaghan on it might be considered a conflict of interest." Frank raised his eyebrows then. "Kind of like having one of the victims spend hours alone with the man she's sleeping with – who also happens to be a uniform – before signing her statement."

Swarek sighed.

Frank walked around and sat back down behind his desk. "I don't care if she was off-duty, one of my cops got hurt tonight. You can bet I'm going to make sure the man responsible pays for that. And fortunately, I have four other officers to back her up if some defence attorney decides to get cute." He looked at Sam pointedly. "I have no problem with you and McNally being involved, so long as you keep it out of my Division. You hear me?"

"How'd you –"

At that, a smirk crossed Frank's face. "Please. How long have we known each other, Sammy? You're smiling. You never smile. But the last few weeks..."

Sam rolled his eyes. "But how'd you know it was McNally?"

"Retraining. I never knew about a problem between you and Callaghan, but suddenly he's dating your rookie and you're trying to kill him. Then they break up and you're smiling. It doesn't take a white shirt."

"I pulled my application from Guns and Gangs," Sam admitted then.

"Yeah, well, I was never that eager to hand back one of my best cops to them, so if McNally's responsible for all of this, I'm fine with it. Just –"

"Keep it out of Division. Yeah, I got it." He turned to leave.

"Sam?"

"Yeah..."

"McNally was assaulted tonight. I know you're pissed off. So am I, so is everyone else. But for you, it's not just because you're her partner, but because of whatever else is going on. But what she needs right now is for you to take care of her, not for you to do something stupid. _I_ definitely don't need you to do something stupid."

"I want this guy to go down. I'm not going to risk doing something that could prevent that from happening."

"You just keep telling yourself that whenever you look at her. But I know you, you've got a temper."

"Look, I'm not going to lie. I'd love to go down to holding and do to that son-of-a-bitch what he did to Andy tonight. But what matters more to me right now is getting her home and making sure she's okay. I won't interfere with this case. You've got my word." Sam nodded, then pushed open the door and headed out.

He made sure Andy was alone, and then slipped into the women's locker room. He furrowed his brow at noticing her jump by the intrusion. "I put in a call to the hospital. Cassie Valens is stable," he said from the doorway.

"Thank you," she replied quietly. She pulled on a TPS jacket someone had given her at some point during the evening and closed her locker. "Can we go?"

"Yeah. Whenever you're ready."

However, he did not take her back to herplace. Fifteen minutes after leaving the station, Sam pulled his truck into his own driveway. Andy was too numb after the evening's events to question him or to argue. So she slowly followed him up the front steps and in through the front door, only then finding herself a little unnerved by the silence that had fallen between them since they had left the hospital parking lot.

The quiet persisted until Sam had closed and locked the front door behind them. Then he turned to her, his eyes dark. "What the _hell _were you thinking?" he finally exploded.


	2. Temper

**A/N **Wow, I am overwhelmed by the response to the first chapter. I am so glad that the feedback has been so positive. I am very excited to be working on a bigger "project" here and I am glad you guys are enjoying the dividends. Stay tuned for plenty more! xoxoxo mustlovecat

**Disclaimer: **I still do not own anything related to _Rookie Blue_, ABC or GlobalTv. And I have yet to find out where they are filming either!

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Andy's eyes flashed as she looked at him. He was yelling at _her_?

"Do you have any idea how stupid that was? You could've gotten yourself killed tonight!" he continued railing at her.

"The guy was beating up his girlfriend. What was I supposed to do?" she fired back.

"You should have put in the 9-1-1 call then walked away!" Sam looked at her incredulously. "Jesus, Andy! If the son-of-a-bitch had had a knife or a gun on him, we wouldn't even be having this conversation! Do you get that? I'd be making a notification to Tommy right now and wondering what the hell I'm supposed to do without you for the rest of my life!"

Neither the anger that was simply emanating off of him nor the yelling fazed Andy at all – she had gotten used to his temper shortly after meeting him, and having it aimed at her was nothing new, either. What took her aback was the depth of emotion behind his words_._ There was some permanence implied in what he had just said.

He stared at her for a moment then practically growled in frustration, taking her silence as defiance and stubborn will instead of what it was - confusion. "You are unbelievable, you know that? Can you just try and stay alive long enough for this to go somewhere?" And with that, he caught her completely off guard as he backed her up against the wall and cupped her face with his hands. He leaned down and kissed her hard, infusing the lip-lock with everything he had been feeling since he had seen her in that park, making it hungry and demanding and completely unrelenting.

Andy's hands curled around his biceps in surprise.

Suddenly realizing that he was being just as aggressive as the creep who attacked her earlier, he started to pull away guiltily; however, she moaned against him in protest, her hands moving up around his neck. He took her response as permission to continue, and he eagerly deepened the kiss, while at the same time slowing it down. However, they were both soon in need of oxygen and breathing heavily as they parted for air. He kept his face close, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "McNally. If anything more had happened to you..."

She lowered her eyes, feeling a little dazed.

He lifted her chin to bring her gaze back to meet his. "You're too damn brave for your own good. Promise me you'll never do anything so crazy again."

Andy shook her head, getting her bearings and her confidence back. "What did I do that was so different from anything we do out there every day, Sam?"

"Seriously? How about the fact that you were unarmed, and that you had no back-up?"

"Well, I couldn't just do _nothing_," she said firmly. "And you know something? You would have done the exact same thing. And if I had it to do all over again, so would I. I can't change who I am. Not even for you."

Sam furrowed his brows at that. "I'm not asking you to change. I'm just asking you to value your life as much as I do. Do you have any idea how lucky you got tonight? How easily things could have gone the other way?"

"Sam..." She stepped back a little, running her fingers through her hair.

He dipped his head, trying to catch her eye. "Andy, I was freakin' scared tonight! I have no problem admitting that. And honestly, I'm as angry at myself as I am at William Cormier, because I didn't protect you and –"

"It's not your job to protect me. At least, not when I'm off-duty." She went to rub her hands up and down her arms, but found herself flinching at her own touch as her hands ran over the newly formed bruises.

He stepped closer, his eyes narrowing as the bruising had already begun to become more pronounced, even in the dim light of the foyer. "What all did he do to you?"

Seeing that her boyfriend was getting angry again, she tried to quell him. "It looks a lot worse than it is."

"I doubt that. And that bastard's lucky he's in lock up." He took a deep breath to shake off some of the rage, his expression softening as he took in his girlfriend's own somewhat timid stance. The last thing he wanted was for her to be scared of him, but after letting his temper get the better of him, he would not have been able to blame her if that was the case. "Look, why don't I go run you a hot bath? It'll probably help the pain. And honestly, if I don't do something to help you right now, I'm going to be in my truck heading to Division to make sure that son-of-a-bitch never lays a hand on anyone else."

Andy offered a small smile. "I appreciate the sentiment, but I think I'd be entitled to the first crack at that."

For the first time since they had left the police station, a smirk tugged at his lips. "And that, sweetheart, I would pay to see." He kissed her forehead gently, and then he headed up the stairs and into his bedroom. He set out the Police College t-shirt she seemed to have developed an affinity for sleeping in, got out some fresh towels from the linen closet, then went into the en suite and started to fill the bathtub with hot water. When she appeared in the doorway a couple minutes later, he greeted her with a smile. He got her a glass of water and a couple of the pills the doctor had prescribed, and then left her alone.

He went to change out of his uniform, and then head headed downstairs to polish off a bottle of beer, while giving her some time alone with her thoughts. When he finally returned to discover that she had not yet emerged, he went and rapped softly on the door. "You okay?" he asked gently.

She did not say anything.

"McNally?"

When there was still no response, he pushed the door open slightly. He found her still in the jacuzzi tub with her knees pulled up to her chest, her arms wrapped around herself, clearly lost in her thoughts. He said 'screw it' to leaving her alone any longer and walked over and crouched down beside the tub, smoothing a hand over her hair. "Hey."

She lifted her head then, a little startled it seemed by his presence, as if she had not heard him before. However, she leaned back into his touch.

Sam leaned over and kissed her temple, then reached down and felt the water, running a hand up her arm as he pulled it out. The temperature was still quite warm. So he stood and pulled off his t-shirt, then stripped off his jeans, socks and boxers, and he climbed in behind her, drawing her back into his arms.

Andy did not protest. For a moment, she just rested back against him, closing her eyes as his hands stroked through her hair. But after a while, she turned her head so she could look at him. Her eyes giving him permission, he brought his mouth down to hers. The kiss was languid and sensual, and although his intention had only been to comfort her, it was soon next to impossible to hide how much he always wanted her.

They remained in the tub a while longer, then he eased her out and took her to his bed.

"How're you doing?" he asked hoarsely as they laid curled up together after making love, his fingers stroking her back lightly.

She shrugged. "Everything hurts. But...I'm okay," she replied.

"I'm sorry for losing it downstairs," he finally apologized, feeling like an idiot for going off on her after what she had been through.

Andy bit her lip. Sam's temper had not really been unexpected. She had seen it before and she would see it again. However, she was still trying to process the emotion behind his tirade. Things were good between them – _very_ good. But they had just been living in the moment. There had been very little talk about feelings or the future. However, it was obvious from what he said downstairs that he saw a life with her. Even when they were making love tonight, she had felt like it was different. Suddenly it was like she had to work overtime to quash her instinct to run. "I get it. It's okay."

As if reading her thoughts, Sam dropped a kiss to the top of her head. "I know you think I'm overprotective. Maybe I am. Maybe that's something I have to work on. But at the same time, _you_ gotta work on letting me in. I get that you're fiercely independent and you feel like you've got to stand on your own and prove that you can take care of yourself. But me wanting to look out for you and giving a damn about what happens to you – It doesn't mean I think you can't do it yourself. It just means I care."

"I know," she said quietly.

He smirked a little, knowing how hard that had been for her to admit. "And you have to know by now how I feel about you."

At that she glanced up at him, her eyebrows knit together. "I don't think I'm ready to hear you say it."

He ran a hand through her hair, shaking his head a little. "You make things a lot more difficult than they have to be, McNally."

"I haven't taken off. That's something, right?"

"Yeah, that's something." He drew her close and kissed her gently. He then realized that he had done something tonight without her permission and in light of her skittishness towards admitting her feelings, he was not sure how she was going to feel about it. When they came up for air, he looked at her a little sheepishly. "Look, Frank knows about us."

"I thought we agreed..."

"We did. I didn't tell him. He'd figured it out." He scowled then. "Something about me smiling more."

She laughed softly. "I guess that's kind of true."

"What? C'mon. I smiled before."

"Yeah, but usually only when it was at the expense of one of us rookies when we did something wrong," she pointed out. "But now, well...I guess I'm keeping you pretty satisfied."

"Sweetheart, that goes without saying, but I don't think our sex life is written all over my face."

Andy just laughed, which made her cringe. She reached up and gingerly touched one of the bruises on her cheek.

"I'll go get you some ice. You need anything else?"

"No, thanks. I guess I should call Traci though. She's probably worried. And God forbid she's sitting outside my apartment freaking out because I haven't come home yet."

As Sam slid out of bed, he quirked an eyebrow. "What do you plan on telling her?"

"That I'm fine."

"I meant about where you are."

She chewed on her lip as she contemplated the question. "I don't know."

"Maybe you should just tell her. I think Oliver's figured it out. It's only a matter of time before everyone else does."

"How did Oliver figure it out? He notice you smiling too?" she teased him.

"No, smart ass. He noticed that you were in a park a lot closer to my place than to yours tonight."

Her smile disappeared. "Oh. Sorry."

"Andy, I don't care. I told you that when we started this thing. I only kept my mouth shut for you. But maybe this is someone's way of saying we should stop hiding away."

"What did Frank say?" she asked, deflecting from making a commitment one way or another to the outing of their relationship.

"That as long as we keep it out of the precinct, he's fine with it."

"Really?"

He nodded. "We're not doing anything wrong. And Best knows how well we work together. He's not going to mess with that if we can keep it together and not let our relationship mess with it. And since I pulled my transfer request to Guns and Gangs, he's even happier so –"

"You _what_?"

Sam hesitated, buying some time as he pulled on his boxers and his jeans. "I didn't mention that, huh?"

"No. When did this happen?"

He shrugged. "A couple weeks ago."

"So, after we hooked up?"

He raised his eyebrows. "Hooked up? Is that what we did?"

"You know what I mean. Sam, I can't be responsible for you giving up something big like that."

"Andy, I hate to break it to you, sweetheart, but everything's not all about you," he smirked.

"I know. I just..." She scowled.

"It might have a _lot_ do to with you, but not all. I actually like what I'm doing right now. And after that undercover job we pulled together, I realized I don't want to be doing that full-time anymore. I don't want to drop out of my life for months at a time, be away from Sarah, my friends...from _you_. Doing undercover work, becoming someone else, it doesn't work if you have things in the life you leave behind that you can't let go of." He walked over to her side of the bed and leaned down, kissing her quickly. "I'll give you a few minutes to talk to Nash."

She just nodded. She watched him walk out of the room then she flopped back on the bed. Maybe it would be better if he just said the words instead of letting his actions speak for him, because everything he had done tonight and now the revelation that he had no plans to leave the Division said more than three little words could. She slid out of bed and found her jeans. She pulled out her cell phone and quickly dialled her best friend's number.

"Andy? Thank God. I've been wondering how you are since you left the park!" Traci rambled worriedly.

"I'm okay. Sore. The creep got me a lot better than I'd like to admit," Andy replied.

"Are you home now? Do you want me to come and stay with you? Dex can take care of Leo."

"No, no, that's okay. I'm all right."

"I know you, Andy. You say you're all right, but...Remember the night of the blackout? You said you were fine then you seemed to abandon all rational thought and made a huge mistake _with your training officer_. You can only put Sam Swarek on ice so many times."

Andy laughed to herself at what a stupid, childish move that had been. As if sticking a post-it in the freezer could put someone out of your mind. A lesson she had learned the hard way. "I, uh – I don't need to put Sam on ice. In fact, he's been thoroughly defrosted," she admitted.

"_What_? What exactly does that mean? Wait, is _that_ why you were in that neighbourhood tonight? You and Swarek...?"

"Yeah. Sorry I didn't tell you sooner, Trace. I just – I didn't want to jinx it. But I don't think we're going to be able to hide it much longer."

"So you guys are together?" Traci asked incredulously. "Like together _together_? Since when?"

"Since the night after the drug bust. I kind of had an epiphany that night."

"And things are good?"

Andy smiled. "Yeah, things are good."

"What about Homicide Luke? Does he know?"

"No. I guess I owe it to him to make sure he hears it from me, huh? I'll figure that out later."

"Well, if things are good and you're happy, I'm happy for you. And this certainly explains a lot. Swarek hasn't been so grumpy lately."

"He's _not_ grumpy!"

"Well, now he's not. And I thought he was going to kill that creep tonight. Not that the rest of us didn't want to, but the look on his face wasn't just that of a pissed off partner. Cormier's probably lucky he's locked away or I bet _he'd_ be spending the night in the hospital."

"Do you know when the arraignment's going to be?" Andy asked then.

"I'm not sure. They'll probably hold off as long as they can because they're thinking he's good for a couple of homicides. Frank's handed the case over to Headquarters," Traci explained.

Andy's eyes widened, but she said nothing in response. Suddenly Sam's anger made more sense.

"Andy? Sweetie? You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm really tired, though. I'll talk to you tomorrow?"

"Definitely. Take care, okay? And call me if you need anything. Or have Sam call me."

"I will. Thanks, Trace. Bye." She disconnected the call and threw her phone onto the bedside table, hugging her knees to her chest. Frank had not told her about the possible link between Cormier and any homicides. A chill ran through her then with the startling realization that not only was Cassie Valens lucky to be alive, but so was she.

"So, can I expect Nash to be all over me tomorrow, telling me how I better be taking good care of her best friend and all that?" Sam kidded as he walked back into the bedroom. His grin disappeared as he laid eyes on his girlfriend and took in the look on her face. "What's wrong?"

"Did you know that they're making Cormier for two murders?"

Sam sat down on the bed facing her, his hand falling on her knee. "Frank mentioned it. I take it he didn't tell you?" he said, reaching up with his other hand and gently laying a cloth filled with ice against her bruised cheekbone.

She flinched a little, and then just shook her head at his question.

"It's too early to have any proof. But I'm guessing FIS is working overtime to find whatever links there may be. It's a good thing. Means he'll go away for a hell of a lot longer than he would for a couple aggravated assaults."

Andy shivered.

"Hey. He's going down for this, McNally. Because of you."

"I just thought I was helping an abuse victim," she said quietly.

"You did. Cassie Valens is alive, probably only because you refused to walk away."

"Why _didn't_ he kill her? Why didn't he kill _me_?"

"I don't know. But I'm going to be thanking God for a long time that he didn't." He scooted closer, drawing her into his arms and hugging her.

Andy clung to him tightly. "I get it now. I would have yelled at you, too."

He chuckled. He pulled back a bit, brushing her hair off her face and looking at her. "Yeah, well, I would've had all the same arguments and we would've ended up in the same place. There are no rules here. We're making this up as we go along, which means there's going to be disagreements."

"Just promise me that at the end of the day, we won't forget that we're on the same side."

"I promise." He leaned over and kissed her lazily. "You ready to get some sleep?"

"Yeah. I think those pain meds are finally starting to kick in."

"Do you want me to set the alarm for the next dose?"

She shook her head. "That's okay. I'll just take them whenever I wake up."

"Okay. Just remember to take them. Don't be a martyr. There's nowhere you need to be tomorrow."

Andy took a deep breath. "I want to go to the arraignment."

Sam bit the inside of his cheek to keep his temper in check, his expression incredulous. "And here I thought we were done arguing."


	3. Outed

**A/N **You guys are amazing! Thank you for embracing "Hold On" so warmly. I am having such a blast writing it. (Sorry to those who were the first few to read the last chapter – the site did something screwy and pasted the first line as the last line, which might have made things a little confusing.) xoxoxo mustlovecat

**Disclaimer: **I still do not own anything related to _Rookie Blue_, ABC or GlobalTv.

* * *

Sam walked into the bedroom, buckling his belt and letting his eyes fall on his girlfriend. She was still fast asleep, the pain medication she had been prescribed putting her under more deeply than she would have been otherwise. On an ordinary day, he would have woken well before the alarm and proceeded to awaken Andy with his hands or his lips rather than the clock on his bedside table. This morning, he had been awakened by the incessant beeping of the clock, and she had slept right through it, as well as him moving clumsily around the room in the dark in an attempt to find some street clothes without disturbing her, and then through the shower running. And while he was not an advocate of narcotics, in this instance, he was almost grateful for their effects. For one, she had probably made it through the night without the intrusion of any nightmares. And two, they had not had to revisit their unfinished argument from the night before. He had held firm on his stance that he thought it was a bad idea for her to be present at William Cormier's bail hearing. She had disagreed vehemently and argued that it was her decision to make. In the end, they had agreed to disagree and had called it a night.

Sam walked over and dropped a gentle kiss on Andy's bruised cheek, feeling his jaw tighten at the reminder of what had happened to her the night before. Her face, her neck, her arms, they were all reminders of how he could have lost her. He shook his head over the fact that barely five weeks in, he was being forced to ponder the big questions – although, it was not as if he did not already know the answers to them. If he was to lose her now, he would be screwed. He had turned into a complete jerk after the blackout, and he had still been in denial back then over how much he wanted to be with her.

A quick glance at the clock told him he did not have time for any further contemplation. He reluctantly left Andy and headed out for another day on the job.

Arriving at Fifteen Division, Sam got out of his truck and locked the door, sighing when he saw Oliver waiting for him across the parking lot outside the personnel entrance. "And so it begins..." he muttered.

"Hey, buddy. How's McNally?" Shaw asked with a hint of frivolity as Swarek neared.

"She's fine," Sam replied with a tight smile.

"After an assault like the one last night? I doubt she's fine. Though she did have you there to kiss it and make it better, right?"

Sam narrowed his eyes. "Why don't you just ask the question you _really _want to ask?"

Shaw smirked. "All right. How long have you and McNally been sneaking around?"

"Thirty eight days." At the surprised expression on his buddy's face, Sam chuckled. "I would've thought after all these years on the job that your investigative skills would be more finely tuned, my friend. If she hadn't been in a park near my place last night, you'd still have no idea."

"Well, that's not true. You _have _been unusually cheerful lately," Shaw observed as they headed inside.

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" Sam shook his head as the two friends walked together towards the locker room. "Look, I'd rather this not get around right now. Callaghan deserves to hear it from me or Andy, not the station rumour mill." He waved his hand dismissively. "That and I don't need anyone putting in their two cents. We're doing just fine without any comments from the peanut gallery."

"So this is the real deal? Not just some, you know..."

"Fling?"

"That's a nicer word than I was thinking," Oliver chuckled.

"You think I would've complicated my life by getting involved with McNally, of all people, if all I wanted was some fling? It's real, Oliver." Sam pushed the door open to the locker room. With others milling about, he fired off a quick warning glance at his friend, letting him know there was nothing further to discuss. And then he went about the business of getting into uniform.

He had a couple minutes to spare before Parade, so he gave Best an update, then he caught Nash's eye and gave her a quick nod that she understood to mean Andy was doing all right. He then took his place beside Shaw at his usual table in the Parade Room and waited for the day's assignment. He noticed Callaghan slip into the room at the last minute and actually found himself feeling a little guilty. Andy was inevitably going to be a topic of conversation during announcements, and he had no idea if this was going to be the first Luke had heard about it.

"All right everyone, quiet down," Frank instructed once everyone had assembled. "First order of business: for those of you who _don't _alreadyknow, one of our own was assaulted last night while intervening in a domestic while she was off-duty. Andy McNally is doing fine, but she was roughed up pretty good and will be out the rest of the week. However, because of her bravery, we now have in custody the man we believe to be responsible for two homicides. Headquarters has been handed the case, but I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, you can send your best wishes through Officers Nash and Swarek. And now, on to today..."

Once Parade was over, Sam jumped up out of his chair and followed Luke into the hallway. "Callaghan!"

Luke stopped and turned to the officer, his expression anything but happy. "What do you want, Swarek?"

"McNally's fine. She's pretty beat up, but nothing's broken and the doctor didn't feel any need to keep her in for observation. She just needs to take it easy for a few days," Sam explained.

"Thanks for the update," Luke said tightly. "You know quite a lot."

"Yeah, well, I'm her partner. It's my job to know."

"Don't insult my intelligence, Sammy. You've been more than her partner for weeks."

Sam sighed. "You're right, you deserve the truth, so I won't insult you and deny it. And if Andy had her way, she'd be telling you all of this herself right now. Look, I just figured you'd want to know how she is. Say what you want, but I know you still care about her."

"You're right. I do care about her. Which means I care that she's making a huge mistake by getting involved with you," Luke replied acidly.

Sam raised his eyebrows, squaring his stance. "Well, you're entitled to your opinion. But while I appreciate your concern, we're doing just fine."

Luke shook his head. "I was with Andy for five months and look at that, not a scratch on her. You've had her for, what, five weeks? And she's recovering from an assault by a murderer. Yeah, she's doing just great."

Swarek took a breath, reaching up and pinching the bridge of his nose, trying to keep himself from saying something he would regret. He wanted to give Luke the benefit of the doubt. He was pretty sure that half the words coming out of the homicide detective's mouth were from a place of concern over Andy's wellbeing, and the other half were the result of hurt over finding out that she had left him only to end up in Sam's bed. "I'll take care of Andy. But if you still care about her as much as you say you do, make sure your homicide buddies over there at Headquarters send Cormier away for nothing less than life without parole." His cell phone starting ringing then. He waved off any response Luke might have had when he took his phone from his pocket and noticed his home number on the call display. He left Callaghan in his wake and headed further down the corridor to answer. "Hey, you okay?"

"Hi. Yeah, I'm fine. Any news?"

Sam shook his head. His girlfriend was nothing if not persistent. "No, nothing yet."

"You'd tell me if there was, right?" she challenged him.

He found himself grinning at her tone. She might frustrate the hell out of him when she was being defiant, but she looked damn hot while she was doing it. "I'll tell you. I promised I would, right? I might disagree with what you do with the information, but I guess that's mine to deal with. So, how're you feeling?"

"I hurt. And I look like crap. Seriously, I get why Frank wouldn't want me anywhere near a victim right now."

He felt like reminding her that the reason Best told her to take the time off was because _she_ was a victim, but he thought better of it. "You're still beautiful," he said instead.

"You're a liar, and kind of obligated to say things like that. But thanks."

He chuckled. "So, I think it's safe to say we're no longer a big secret."

"Why? What happened?"

"Like I guessed, Shaw figured it out. And Callaghan knows, too."

"Oh," she said quietly.

"I thought he should hear it from me before word got around, but I get the feeling he already knew. He's not my biggest fan right now."

"I hate to break it to you, but he hasn't been your biggest fan since you told him you put the moves on me the night of the blackout. But I'll deal with Luke when I get back. I owe him an explanation – and an apology. Anything else happen I should know about?"

"Not yet. But the day's still young. And Frank decided to send Epstein out with me instead of letting me ride alone. Must be some kind of punishment," he muttered.

Andy laughed. "Ah, poor baby. Maybe after ten hours out there with Dov you'll put in a good word for _me_."

"Oh, I get it now. You're thinking you can use this to your advantage and get your cute little butt back here sooner. Nice try, McNally, but the doctor said a week. Now how 'bout you try and get some rest? I'll pick up some take-out from that Tibetan place you like on my way home if you're good."

She giggled. "And if I'm bad?"

He groaned. "If I wasn't riding with Epstein, I'd be able to stop by and show you now, wouldn't I? Take it easy, sweetheart, okay?"

"Call me if you hear anything."

"I promise, I'll call.

Not noticing that Sam was on the phone, Dov came bounding down the hall, his entire being vibrating with excitement. "So, I'm thinking that we can help Headquarters out on these homicides and follow up on some leads, right?" he suggested.

Swarek's hand flew up to silence the former rookie before he pointed to the cell at his ear.

"Sorry, sir," Dov whispered.

Sam just rolled his eyes. "Gotta go. I'll be in touch," he said into the phone.

Andy's amusement resonated through the line. "Have fun!"

Sam shook his head, sliding his phone back into his pocket as he turned to Epstein. "While I admire your enthusiasm, getting involved in this case is a conflict of interest. We'll be manning the radar today."

"_What_? Ah, c'mon. How can anything we do be considered a conflict? That would suggest that _any_ evidence touched by the Fifteen will be thrown out, and that just doesn't seem reasonable, just because Andy's one of ours and –"

Sam's hand flew up once again to stop the young officer's rambling. "You're giving me a headache, Epstein. It's only evidence _I_ touch that might be called into question. But since you got the bad luck of being partnered with me today, that means no following up on any leads. Now are you ready to go?"

Dov's brow crinkled in confusion. "Because you're McNally's partner?"

"Sure, let's go with that." Sam started down the corridor in the direction of the garage, as anxious as he was ever going to be to get the day started.

"Whoa! Seriously? You and Andy?" Epstein asked, catching up with Swarek as they passed through the garage.

Sam stopped and turned to the young officer. "Give Wonder Boy a gold star. Yes, me and McNally. You got a problem with that?" He quirked an expectant eyebrow.

"N-no. I mean, of course not. Well..."

Swarek crossed his arms over his chest. "Spit it out, rook."

"It's just – Look, no disrespect, but Andy's one of my best friends and—"

Sam's impatient expression softened. "I'm not going to hurt her. I care about her, and I'm not gonna let anything happen to her. You've got my word." And as quickly as the genial Sam had emerged, he vanished. "Now can we go already? I'd like to finish this shift before the next millennium."

"Uh, sure. Yeah. No problem." Following a few steps behind, Dov shook his head. "Rock and roll, McNally."

* * *

Andy actually heeded Sam's advice and rested for part of the day. However, once the morning stretched into the afternoon, she could not seem to sit still. She tried to distract herself by cleaning Sam's kitchen, but quickly realized her boyfriend was a bit of a neat freak and she was spinning her wheels. So she bit her lip in contemplation and finally grabbed the cordless phone off the island. She called the hospital, waiting patiently as she was transferred from person to person, had her credentials checked, and finally made it to the nurses' station on the floor where Cassie Valens had been admitted.

"What can I do for you, Officer?" the woman at the other end asked, her tone actually kind unlike that of the three other people she had spoken with already.

"I was just hoping you could tell me how Cassie is?" Andy requested.

"She's resting comfortably. She has extensive internal injuries, but nothing life threatening. She's very lucky. A few more minutes without medical attention and things would probably be very different."

Andy's breath hitched. "Oh. But she _is_ going to be okay?"

"Yes, ma'am. The doctor's going to keep her for a few days, but he expects a full recovery."

"Um, has she had any visitors? I mean, does she have some family with her?"

"I believe there's just a brother, out in Saskatchewan. He's on his way, but probably won't be here for another day or so. There were a couple detectives here earlier, though," the nurse explained.

"That's, uh – That's good. Okay. Thank you. Do you think she might be up for a visitor?"

"She'd probably like that."

"Thanks again for all your help. I appreciate it." Once Andy had disconnected the call, she released a breath she had not realized she was holding. Hearing that Cassie was going to recover made her feel a little better, but she still wished things were different. She ran her hands through her hair, wishing last night had not happened in the first place. And she found herself suddenly feeling the silence.

While contemplating how to escape the suffocating quiet, her cell phone remedied the situation. She retrieved it from the coffee table, furrowing her eyebrows on the unfamiliar number on the call display. For a moment, she considered leaving the call unanswered, but thought better of it and brought the phone to her ear. "Hello?"

"Is this Officer Andy McNally?" a strange, deep male voice asked from the other end of the line.

"Uh, yeah..."

"Hi, Andy, I'm Detective Jason Donner with the Homicide Squad. We haven't had a chance to meet yet, and I wish it wasn't under these circumstances. But I was wondering if you had some time to go over the events of last night? I can stop by wherever you're staying in say half an hour?"

Andy chewed on her lip. "Homicide? So you have a case?" she asked instead of committing to his request.

"Not yet. Cormier's got a bail hearing set for tomorrow morning. Right now, the charges are two counts of aggravated assault. But we've definitely got some leads worth pursuing to lay additional charges down the road."

"I don't think I can help you with that," she said. "I don't know anything outside of what happened. And to be honest, it happened so fast..."

"You probably know more than you think. You mind if I stop by? It will be better if everything's still fresh in your mind."

Knowing she probably did not have much of a choice, and that she would rather get it over with, she relented. "Sure, no problem. I'm staying at my boyfriend's." She gave him the address and hung up the phone with a sigh. However, instead of setting her phone aside, she hit the speed dial.

"You remember that day we were manning the radar and you asked me what time it was, thinking at least two hours had passed since the first time you asked when in reality it was like fifteen minutes? I'm reliving that day," Sam answered his cell without preamble.

Andy managed a soft laugh. "It can't be that bad."

"Sweetheart, you have no idea. What's up?"

"Do you know a Detective Jason Donner?"

"Yeah, sure, he's with the Homicide Squad. Damn good detective and scary on the stand. He never sends anything to the Crown he's not positive will result in a conviction. Why?"

"He's investigating William Cormier. He's on his way over to talk to me."

"Donner's on _your_ case?" Sam asked incredulously.

"Well, not exactly. They're going ahead with assault charges right now. He said they don't have enough to lay any charges on the murders, but they are pursuing a case. Why?"

"Strange. Well, maybe he's changed assignment."

"What do you mean?"

"While I was undercover trying to build a case against Anton Hill, he was working on trying to get charges to stick against Hill's enforcer." Sam considered for a moment. "Do you know anything about the murders they suspect Cormier committed?"

"No."

"Or what tipped them off last night that he was good for them?"

"Sam, I don't know anything."

"Well, it doesn't really matter. If they can put him away for the assaults right now, that's good enough for me. Just tell Jason what you know. He's a good guy. You can talk to him," he assured her.

"I wish you were here."

"You'll be fine, babe."

"Yeah. I'll see ya later."

"Hey, McNally?"

"Yeah?"

"That thing you're not quite ready to hear? One of these days, I'm gonna say to hell with it and just come right out and tell you anyway."

Instead of her eyes darting for the door as she would have expected, Andy found her whole body growing warm. "Sam..."

"I don't need to hear you say it back, Andy. Look, I gotta go. Epstein looks like he's about to have an aneurysm about something. I'll see you in a couple hours. Just tell Donner the truth and you'll be fine."

"The truth. Right. Okay. Bye."

"Bye."

She stared at the phone for a moment with her eyebrows knit together, finally muttering to herself, "The truth? The truth is I'm pretty sure I love you, too."


	4. Fireworks

**A/N **Thank you to everyone for your continued interest and support! I'm sorry it has taken me so long to update, but unfortunately, the real world does not appreciate my Rookie Blue obsession! I probably will not get the next chapter up before Wednesday, either. But I hope you enjoy this latest chapter and it will be enough to tide you over. xoxoxo mustlovecat

**Disclaimer: **I still do not own anything related to _Rookie Blue_, ABC or GlobalTv.

* * *

Andy jumped slightly at the sound of the doorbell. She shook her head, chastising herself for her skittishness and headed to the front door, hesitating for a moment before opening it. She was hardly prepared for the man she found standing there on the doorstep in front of her. From the way Sam had described him, she had been expecting Jason Donner to be older, a cop from her father's generation. Instead, the detective, who nearly towered over her, was definitely younger than her boyfriend. He was wearing a well-cut Italian suit, had short, black hair and icy grey-blue eyes. And as if anticipating her wariness, he was already holding up his badge. "Detective Donner?"

He nodded. He looked her over, taking in her small frame buried beneath a grey Toronto Police Services hoodie that definitely wasn't hers and an old pair of jeans, her beautiful face battered and bruised. Only years of seeing victims gave him the ability to school his expression instead of cringing at the injuries that obviously must be painful. "Sorry we're meeting under these circumstances, Officer McNally."

"Andy, please. C'mon in." She stepped aside and ushered him into the house, leading him down the hallway and into the living room. "Can I get you something? A cup of coffee or –"

"Oh, no. Thanks. I won't take up much of your time. How're you feeling?"

She shrugged. She gestured for him to have a seat in the armchair, and as she sat down on the couch, she replied, "I've been better. But it helps knowing Cassie Valens is going to be okay."

"Yeah, yeah, she's lucky. So are you," he said pointedly. "You took a hell of a chance."

She rolled her eyes a little. "So I've been told."

Donner smirked at that. "Your staff sergeant or the boyfriend?"

She laughed softly. "Both. My staff sergeant was a little nicer about it."

"Well, fact of the matter is, you saved Ms Valens' life, and your bravery should be commended. And I also know you've already given a pretty detailed statement, so I'm not going to waste your time making you relive the whole thing. I just have a couple questions that might help my investigation into these homicides. Do you mind?"

"No, it's fine. I don't know if I can help, but I'll try," Andy said willingly. "But can you tell me what makes you think he might be good for these murders?"

"Yeah, Cormier's fingerprints matched those we lifted off a gun used in two homicides."

Andy raised her eyebrows. "That's pretty damning. Why aren't you charging him?"

"Because they're latent prints. There's a smudged set on top we can't match. Of course, that doesn't mean he didn't do it and somebody else didn't just touch the gun after, but it's not enough when that's all we've got. Reasonable doubt."

"You never take anything to court unless you know you'll get a conviction," she said quietly.

"What's that?"

Andy's face coloured. "It's just – Your reputation kind of precedes you."

Jason chuckled. "I won't ask."

"Sorry, go ahead. Ask whatever it is you need to ask."

He reached into his inside suit jacket pocket and pulled out his memo book, flipping through the pages. He went over just a couple sections of her statement seeking some clarification. However, as Andy first suggested, she was of little help for Donner's current investigation.

"I'm sorry I couldn't give you anything else," she apologized as she escorted him to the door a while later.

"I wasn't really expecting much. But I don't believe in leaving any stone unturned," he explained.

"Yeah, I heard that, too."

He just shook his head with a grin. "TPS is just like high school, isn't it? No secrets."

Andy nodded. He had no idea that she was already anticipating that statement to prove itself true over the next few days now that word about her relationship with Sam was out. "Yeah, something like that."

"Listen, Andy, if you think of anything else, please give me a call. Doesn't matter how insignificant it might be. It sounds like the case against Cormier for the assaults on Cassie and you is pretty solid. But it wouldn't break my heart to put this guy away for a couple life sentences as well."

"I'd be more than happy to see that happen, believe me. I'll let you know if I remember anything more." She worried her lip a moment before asking, "Do you know what time the bail hearing is in the morning?"

"If you're asking because you want to go, my advice is not to. It's a five minute hearing, and being there isn't going to get you anything."

"I just think if I'm there –"

"Andy, the guy's not talking, which means there won't be a guilty plea. And there's no way the Crown Attorney is about to offer him a deal when the bastard assaulted a police officer. So the only question will be whether or not he'll be able to post bail. If he gets out, you'll be notified. But don't put yourself through something you don't have to for no reason, all right? Take care of yourself, and tell that boyfriend of yours to lay off giving you a hard time and ante up on the TLC. The Department's lucky to have you."

"Thanks," she said softly.

He nodded. "I'll be in touch. Bye now." He opened the door and let himself out.

Andy closed and locked the door behind him. Having glanced at the clock before ushering Jason out, she did not re-set the alarm, knowing Sam would probably be home soon.

She headed into the kitchen, and though she hated taking medication, she choked down another dose of the pain killers the doctor has prescribed. The cut over her eye and the bruising over her cheekbone were throbbing, and her arms ached. She felt pathetic for letting some cuts and bruises get to her this way, even with the ER resident's voice in her head telling her that her injuries were far from minor.

She curled up on the couch and flipped on the local news to kill some time until Sam got home. However, fifteen minutes later, she was fast asleep.

* * *

Having changed into his street clothes, Sam headed out of the locker room and down the corridor, crossing through the squad room and stopping at his desk just long enough to pick up a couple cards that had been dropped off for Andy. As he resumed his path for the exit, he found himself on the verge of whistling, but he quickly restrained himself.

"So_ you're_ the one I have to thank for Callaghan being a total ass today," Jerry quipped as he fell into step beside his best friend.

Sam shook his head with a roll of his eyes.

"So it's true, huh? You and McNally finally got together?"

"Yep." Sam pushed open the door to the personnel entrance and stepped out into the late afternoon sunshine. Once out of the precinct, he stopped and turned to Barber. "I'm sorry if you or any of the other D's are paying for Luke's bad mood, and I know he's a friend of yours...But I'm not going to apologize for how I feel about Andy or for what happened between us. Besides, we both know that if Callaghan's bein' an ass, it's because he's pissed off at me, not because he's all broken up about losing her. It's not like he's been torn up for the past five weeks. Hell, if he'd paid half as much attention to her while they were together as he is now to his bruised ego, maybe things would be different."

"I doubt that. You two were kind of inevitable."

Sam smirked. "I like to think so,"

"C'mon, we both know that I was the one who burned you, not McNally. But you let me off the hook way too easy. The Sam I've known all these years wouldn't have done that unless, deep down, you were actually grateful."

"I'm not sorry about the way things turned out. Though I'd be a lot happier if Anton Hill was behind bars."

"He'll get there. People get what's coming to them." Jerry's expression sobered then. "How's Andy doing?"

At that Sam furrowed his brow. "A lot of cuts and bruises. Nothing that won't heal with some time. But what I wouldn't give to do the same to William Cormier..."

"I hear you. I mean, if it had been Traci...But I guess the question is, what's more important: getting revenge, or doing whatever you can to make sure you don't make things worse for McNally?"

"He could've killed her, Jer," Sam said, nearly choking on the words.

"But he didn't. That's what you've got to hold onto, Sammy. We've both spent enough time on the job to see what can happen when you let the rage take over everything else."

Sam nodded, taking a deep breath.

"I heard Donner's picked up the case. He's a good detective. If there's something there, he'll find it, and he'll make it stick."

"Do you know anything about these murders he's trying to link Cormier to?"

"No. But I can make a phone call; see what I can find out."

Sam shook his head. "No, that's all right. Jason and I go back a ways. I'll catch up with him at some point. Right now, all I care about is the bastard going down for laying a hand on Andy."

"They've got him on the assaults, Sammy. You've got nothing to worry about there."

Sam glanced at his watch. "I gotta get going. I promised Andy I'd pick up take-out from Everest, and Queen West's going to be a nightmare at this hour."

"Let me know if you want me to do any digging into this other case."

"Will do. Thanks, buddy. I'll see ya later."

Forty-five minutes later, Sam pulled his truck into his driveway. He juggled the take-out and his duffle bag as he unlocked the front door and let himself into the house, all ready to disarm the alarm system. He furrowed his brow at the discovery that Andy had not set it. He kicked off his shoes and hung up his jacket then moved through the house, ready to chastise her for the alarm, but instead found himself stopping in his tracks as he laid eyes on his girlfriend, sound asleep on the couch in the living room. He took dinner into the kitchen and set it on the counter, then returned to Andy's side, crouching down beside the chesterfield and running a hand through her hair.

Andy stirred but did not wake up.

Sam leaned over and kissed her forehead gently, then looked her over. He couldn't see her arms since she was buried under one of his hoodies, but the cut over her eye was a little red around the stitches, the bruises on her face a dark purple now. And for the first time, he noticed the shape of the bruising on her neck. He held out his large hand as if to wrap it around her throat and quickly concluded the bruises were in the shape of a handprint. He felt sickened by the realization that the son-of-a-bitch had tried to strangle her. "Jesus, Andy," he muttered.

At the sound of his voice, Andy let herself be pulled from sleep and she stretched as she opened her eyes. She smiled to find Sam crouched down beside her. "Hmm. Hi."

Sam did his best to abandon his anger and offered a half-hearted smile in return. "Hey. How're you feeling?"

"Everything hurts," she admitted.

"You take the meds?"

"Why do you think I'm sleeping at six-thirty?" she retorted with a grin. "Did you bring me food? Because I'm _starving_."

"I knew it. You're just using me for the take-out," he quipped.

"You kidding? I'm using you for your body." She met his lips in a quick kiss then eased herself up off the couch and headed into the kitchen.

Left in her wake, Sam grinned with a shake of his head. He finally straightened up and followed her. When he saw her wince as she reached for some plates, he quickened his steps. "Hey, hey, I got it."

Andy knit her eyebrows together in frustration. "Who knew a bunch of bruises could hurt so much?"

Sam retrieved a couple of plates and set them on the table, then looked at his girlfriend. "Can I see?"

A little reluctantly, knowing it was going to set him off again, she pulled off the sweatshirt. In just a tank top, he was able to get a good look at the bruises that lined her arms, and the ones he had noticed on her neck stood out even more. Andy chewed on her lip, appraising him as he looked her over. When she noticed his jaw tighten, she stepped closer. "I am _so _hungry. Please tell me you got the platter with the chow mein," she said, doing her best to distract him.

Sam knew that the last thing she needed was him getting all angry again, so he nodded. "Yeah. Whatever my girl asks for..."

"Hmm, I'll remember that."

He flashed her a suggestive smirk, then finished setting the table.

They ate in silence for a while, until finally Andy said, "You were right."

"You'll have to be more specific, sweetheart. I'm always right," he teased.

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, get over yourself! I meant about Jason Donner. He's a nice guy. Easy to talk to."

"Yeah, he is. He give you any insight into the other case?"

Andy filled him on what little she knew, stabbing at her food with her fork in irritation as she explained that there was no concrete proof at this point to put William Cormier away for murder.

"Well, whatever happens with Jason's case, Cormier's going down for what he did to you, and that's all that matters."

"What he did to me and _Cassie_," she reminded him.

"'Course."

Andy hesitated for a moment, knowing she was going to feed his ego even more with what she was about to say. However, she finally sighed. "I'm not going to the bail hearing tomorrow."

Sam quirked his eyebrow. "Not that I'm unhappy, but you were pretty damn adamant last night. What changed your mind?"

"Jason pretty much argued everything you had. I guess it finally sunk in."

"I'm trying to ignore the fact that you listened to Jason Donner but fought me on it for like an hour last night."

Andy laughed. "You almost sound jealous."

"I'm not _jealous_, McNally," he argued.

"Good, because you will never have any reason to be. And for the record, I probably would have backed down if you'd tried to talk me out of it again. I'm just a little stubborn sometimes."

"A little, huh?" he snorted.

"Look who's talking."

"Yeah, well, two strong-willed people...There's gonna be lots of fireworks." His lips curled in lopsided grin then. "And lots of make-up sex."


	5. Truth

**A/N **Here is the next chapter. Thanks to all of you for continuing to read. I am completely swamped and stressed at work – it's lovely to have some place to escape to. Unfortunately, work is the reason for the delay in getting this posted. Thanks for your patience. I hope the wait was worth it! xoxoxo mustlovecat

**Disclaimer: **I still do not own anything related to _Rookie Blue_, ABC or GlobalTv.

* * *

Andy stared at the ceiling, counting the minutes until the alarm went off, even though that would not signal the start of the day for her. She was still on leave. All she had to look forward to was another day with Sam at work while she hung around his empty house alone, thinking and re-thinking about how the bruises that still covered her face and her body had arrived there in the first place. The only consolation was that William Cormier, though he had been granted bail, had thus far been unable to come up with the hundred and fifty grand needed to secure his release. He was still behind bars for the foreseeable future.

Andy turned her head and glanced at the clock: five thirteen. She reached over Sam and turned off the alarm, then stretched out on her side next to him. She took in his strong profile, the man she had woken up with most mornings over the past six weeks. In fact, there had only been a handful of mornings since they got together that she had woken alone in her own bed. She felt perfectly comfortable in his house. More of her clothes could be found in his closet and taking over his drawers than in her own back in her apartment. The woman who had once bolted from Luke's with the excuse that she did not sleep well in strange beds no longer thought twice about not going home for days on end. So why was she still so terrified about saying the words that mattered out loud?

Knowing she would have all day to ponder her ridiculous fear of admitting to having fallen in love, she looked back at the man responsible for putting her in this position.

"You spend enough time undercover, you learn to know when you're being watched," Sam said a couple minutes later, his voice gruff and laced with sleep. He opened his eyes slowly and looked over at his startled girlfriend.

"How long have you been awake?" she asked a little sheepishly, embarrassed at having been caught.

"Long enough. You okay?"

"Yeah. Sure. Fine."

"Yeah? Then why are you awake at five in the morning when you don't have to be at work?"

She bit her lip. Then instead of answering his question, she slumped onto her back with a sigh. "Why _can't_ I go to work? I feel fine. It's been _almost _a week, and I'm perfectly capable of at least manning the desk for the day. I could even do your paperwork. I know you've probably fallen behind without me there the past few days."

Sam chuckled. "Did you ever _not_ get your way when you were a kid?"

She grinned then. "Does that mean you're going to take me with you?"

"It means I might be convinced. 'Course, me taking you to the station doesn't mean that Best will let you work," he pointed out. However, he knew the opposite to be true. Frank would throw her behind a desk but he would welcome her return. Sam, on the other hand, had mixed feelings. The cop in him missed his partner; the boyfriend in him wanted to make sure Andy had fully recovered, and he wasn't happy about her being in the same building where Cormier was still being held.

"I can be very convincing," she said with a wanton look, a hand sliding across his bare chest.

Sam glanced over at the clock. "If we're both going to the station, we don't have a lot of time," he reluctantly pointed out.

"We do if we shower together," she persisted. She lifted the covers and climbed over on top of him. "But I mean, if you don't want to..."

"You're going to be the death of me, McNally," he muttered before he pulled her down and captured her lips in a searing kiss.

As Sam pulled his truck into a parking space at the precinct, with just minutes to spare before shift, he said, "You better not even think about trying to convince Best that way."

Andy giggled. She unbuckled her seatbelt and slid over towards him, leaning up and kissing his cheek. "Admit it. That was a pretty great way to start your day."

"Oh, I'm a lucky guy," he replied, flashing her his dimpled grin. He winked at her then grabbed his duffel bag from the back and opened his door, climbing out of the truck. He locked the door, then walked around the other side. He found Andy standing there, her feet seemingly rooted to the ground as she chewed on her lip and her eyes affixed on something across the parking lot. Sam followed her gaze to see Luke parking his own car.

Andy swallowed hard, then looked up at Sam. "Can you just give me a minute?"

"Yeah, no problem. I'll see you inside," he replied. He and Luke had not said two words to each other since that first shift after Andy's attack. And while he did not anticipate they would be buddies any time soon, he knew Andy at least wanted the chance to try and make things all right. Though he was not crazy about the idea of her and Callaghan being all buddy-buddy, he also did not want to see Andy hurt.

Andy watched Sam head into Division, then she finally managed to get her feet to move. By the time she was half-way across the parking lot, Luke had spotted her. She felt her stomach drop when she noticed him scowl, though he stopped and awaited her approach. "Hi," she greeted softly when she finally reached him.

"Hey. You okay?" he asked, looking her over, the bruises no longer an angry purple and blue but having faded to a less noticeable green and yellow. However, a butterfly bandage still covered the cut over her eye.

Andy nodded.

"I thought you were supposed to be off the rest of the week."

"I feel fine and I was going crazy at home. Best said I could come back and he'd put me behind a desk."

Luke just nodded for a moment, looking away as if contemplating whether he wanted to say anything more. Finally, his gaze returned to meet hers. "So, this thing with Swarek...Tell me you at least waited to break up with me before you jumped into bed with him."

"Luke –"

"He'll break your heart, Andy," he continued. "Come on. Any guy who spends that much time undercover has no desire to ever settle down. But then again, you've got your own commitment issues, so maybe you're perfect for each other after all."

Andy furrowed her brow. She decided against trying to defend herself or Sam, knowing it would not make things any better. So instead, she said, "I'm really sorry about what happened between us. I hope that one day we can be friends again, but I know that's too much to hope for right now. So, I, uh – I'll just see you around." And with that, she turned and headed inside before anything more could be said.

Andy spent the morning catching up on paperwork. It was nothing exciting, but she was just happy to be back in uniform and on the job. Sam had been sent out on patrol on his own, but after bringing in a shoplifter and sending her to booking just before noon, he headed into the squad room to check on his girlfriend.

"McNally..." he drawled out her name, sitting down on the edge of her desk.

She glanced up at him with a smile. "Hi there. How did you ever get your paperwork done before me?"

He smirked. "There's always some poor rook around to intimidate."

"You know I'm not a rookie anymore, right?" she asked, though her tone was anything but accusing. She would much rather be stuck doing his paperwork than home watching another episode of _The View_.

"You'll always be _my_ rookie, McNally." He fought against the urge to lean down and kiss her, knowing they had to at least keep up the pretence of being professional while in the barn. His expression sobered a little then as he looked her over. "You feeling okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Like you'd tell me if you weren't," he replied with a roll of his eyes. "Listen, I was thinking that maybe we could get out of town –"

"Hey, what's he doing here?" Andy asked as if she had not heard any of what Sam was in the midst of suggesting.

He turned and followed her line of sight to see Jason Donner standing at the front desk.

With that, Jason happened to glance up and he caught Sam's eye. He grinned with a nod, then clapped his hand on the desk and thanked the officer stuck manning it, before he headed around into the squad room. "Swarek! How's it going, man?"

Sam stood up and extended his hand as the detective reached him. "I got no complaints. Yourself?"

"Things are good." He glanced past Sam and smiled down at Andy. "You're looking good, McNally. You must be feeling better if you're back at work?"

She nodded. "Are you here about William Cormier?" she asked hopefully.

"Not in the way I'm sure you were hoping. He's got an alibi for the murders," Donner related.

Her face fell. "Oh."

Sam furrowed his brow. "But he's still going down for the assaults, right?"

"That's out of my hands," Jason explained. He looked at Sam. "You got a few minutes? I'd like to talk to you about the Anton Hill investigation."

Swarek quirked an eyebrow. "Really. Uh, yeah, sure."

"Does Cormier have something to do with Anton Hill?" Andy piped in.

Jason hesitated. "We don't know. But it was good seeing you again Andy. Sammy?"

Andy's eyebrows knit together at the dismissal and she looked up at Sam, expecting some kind of defence.

However, Sam knew well enough to know that Jason would be much more forthcoming with Swarek, the cop than with Sam, the boyfriend of one of Cormier's victims. He waved Andy off and threw her a glance that told her to trust him, then he nodded at Donner. "Right this way."

As she watched them walk off, Andy sat back in her chair with a scowl. She did not appreciate being cast off, even by her partner – and maybe _especially_ by her boyfriend.

Sam ushered Jason into the empty Parade room and shut the door, suspecting that whatever the homicide detective had to say, he wanted to keep private. "I've got to admit, you mention Anton Hill, you get my attention."

"Your white whale, huh?"

Sam chuckled. Andy had referred to him in the same way the first day they had worked together, when she had found a copy of _Moby Dick_ in the apartment he had lived in during the operation. "Something like that."

"William Cormier is his real name, but we're pretty sure he is better known under an alias: Walter Cummings. Ring any bells?"

"Cummings doesn't exist, Jase. He's a ghost. I worked for Hill's organization for eight months and I never met the man," Sam said incredulously.

"I'm pretty damn sure he exists, Sammy, and that you've got him downstairs in lock up. And if we can get him to talk, you'll finally get to see Hill get what he deserves."

Sam narrowed his eyes. "How sure are you?"

"The murders we thought he committed – Dante Zamprogna and Jesse Alvarez – he might not have pulled the trigger, but he touched the gun. Zamprogna and Alvarez worked for Tomasz Antonechuk."

"One of Hill's biggest adversaries. But that doesn't prove that Cormier's Cummings – or that he has any connection to Anton. He could have sold his gun to whoever offed those guys, or dropped it in a trash can and was unlucky enough to have someone else pick it up and use it in a couple hits. You're dealing with a lot of conjecture here, Jason."

"I know. That's where you come in."

Sam leaned against one of the tables and crossed his arms over his chest. "My cover was blown a long time ago."

"Yeah, I heard about that. Some rookie?" Jason laughed.

Sam nodded towards the door. "Yeah, you've met her."

"Seriously? McNally was the one who burned you?"

"Yep. Tackled me to the ground on her first day, brought me in on a possession charge...Pretty damn impressive looking back."

"Well, you can't really mind getting tackled by _that_. When I stopped by to question her the other day, she said she was at her boyfriend's. You know if it's serious? I mean, the woman's beautiful, sexy, crazy brave..."

Sam cleared his throat. "From what I hear, it's serious. Back to Cormier. What do you want me to do?"

"Talk to him. You know the players. If anyone can get him to open up, it'll be you," Jason said.

Sam narrowed his eyes. "I don't know. I got a lot of reasons not to want to be in the same room with the guy."

"Look, I know he roughed up one of your own, but –"

"McNally's boyfriend? That was _my_ living room you were standing in the other day. And you know how I know it's serious? Because I'm in love with her. So, you put me in the same room with William Cormier and he's not going to live long enough to talk."

Donner stepped back, taking in Sam's admission. He shook his head. "Swarek, this could be our chance to get Hill. Look, I heard you were instrumental in getting the Landrys and Henry Bergen off the street. If we get Hill – Come on, we can pretty much shut down the drug trade here in Toronto if we finally nail his ass to the wall. If Cormier knows _half_ of what I think he does..."

"That's a big if," Sam pointed out. "Besides, he's not a big talker. He was caught dead to rights with his hands around the throat of a cop and he's still taking it to trial."

"You spent months in Hill's organization. You know things no one else does. You're the one, Sam."

Swarek took a deep breath. "I need some time to think about it. Cormier's not going anywhere. But right now, you put me in an interrogation room with him, and I'm gonna end up suspended and you're going to end up with a dead witness or whatever the hell he is."

Sam was sent out on a call before he could tell Andy what Donner had wanted to talk about. That left her behind her desk for the rest of the shift to wonder. However, not only was she curious about whatever connection there might be between Cormier and Anton Hill, but the reminder of Hill had brought back some of Luke's words from earlier that morning: _'Any guy who spends that much time undercover has no desire to ever settle down.' _Would putting Hill back on Sam's radar make him yearn for the rush of undercover work?

"You're being awful quiet," Sam said as the couple walked through the front door of his house after shift. "You don't really do quiet, so that makes me nervous," he added with a smirk.

A half-hearted smile tugged at her mouth at his quip as she hung up her jacket and kicked off her shoes.

"Hey, Andy, what's really going on in that pretty head of yours? It about the case? 'Cause you don't have to worry. Cormier might not be going down on those murders, but he's still going to jail for what he did to you."

She bit her lip, fidgeting a little with the hem of her shirt.

Sam hung up his own jacket, then stepped closer to her. He reached over and tilted her chin up so she was forced to meet his gaze. "What it is?"

"Do you miss your life before?"

"Before? Before what, McNally?"

She shrugged. "Just _before_. Before me. Before putting on the uniform again. I mean, you liked being undercover, right?"

"Yeah, of course. But I like what I've got now a hell of a lot more."

"You don't miss it? Think about going back? I mean, it must be nice to disappear from everything every once and a while."

"And miss what we've got going on here? I don't think so." He leaned down and kissed her, gently at first before he drew her into his arms and deepened the kiss, as if sensing she needed some convincing. "Andy, you gotta know by now—"

"I love you," she blurted out, cutting him off.

His eyes widened, but as the admission sunk in, a smirk crossed his face. "It's about damn time."

Her cheeks tinged with colour.

He cupped her face in his hands then as his expression sobered a little. "I love you, too, McNally. And if someone's put it in your head that I'm going somewhere, think again. I've been in this since you laid me out on the pavement and tried to kiss me."

"I didn't—"

He grinned. He brushed his nose against hers and as his mouth hovered just above hers, he said, "Okay, but you _wanted_ to."

"Shut up," she laughed, pulling him closer and kissing him languidly.


	6. You're Up

**Disclaimer: **I still do not own anything related to _Rookie Blue_, ABC or GlobalTv.

* * *

"I can't believe I let Donner talk me into this," Sam muttered. He pushed up to his elbows the long-sleeves of the white shirt he was wearing layered under a short-sleeved black Rush t-shirt, already feeling a bit hot under the collar. The consensus had been that street clothes would be more effective, but he was already missing the intimidation factor that came with the uniform.

Andy offered him a reassuring smile. "You'll be great. All you have to do is get him to talk, right? And nobody's better at that than you are. I've seen it before. Remember Gabe? You got him to spill his guts when two seconds before he was refusing to tell you anything."

"Yeah, well, Gabe wasn't responsible for nearly killing you," Sam replied, his voice hoarse with the emotion that belied those words. "I don't really care what this guy has to say. All I care about is shutting him up."

Andy stepped closer to him, glancing quickly out into the hall to make sure nobody was hovering outside the observation room. Convinced they were alone, she laid her hands on his chest and looked up at him. "I get it now, Sam. I know you how much you care about me. You don't have to prove it. So don't worry about me. This isn't about what happened in that park. Just go in there and go get Anton Hill once and for all."

Sam reached behind him and pushed the door to the room closed. He then cupped Andy's face in his hands and kissed her hard. "I don't just care about you, McNally, all right? And nothing, not even getting Hill, is more important to me than you. And I know that still scares you, but it doesn't make it any less true."

She bit her lip, a little overwhelmed. She might have said the words, but they had slipped out of their own volition. But there was nothing but conviction when Sam said them. "I know," she admitted quietly.

He stroked her cheek gently, some remnants of the bruising still lingering there, a constant reminder of what the man he was about to face had done to her. "You frustrate the hell out of me. You know that, right?"

She grinned. "I like to keep you on your toes. Keeps things interesting."

"Sweetheart, I got no doubt that things will always be interesting where we're concerned." He leaned down to kiss her again, but quickly stepped back as the door opened.

"Hey, you ready?" Donner asked, walking into the room surrounded by an air of nervous energy. He was grateful that Sam had finally agreed to question Cormier. He was getting pressure from the top to make sure the ammunition that had the potential to bring down Anton Hill and his entire organization was not wasted. Jason was hoping that the hunch on which he now seemed to be banking his entire career panned out.

"Yeah, let's get this done," Sam nodded. He had faced many criminals who were much more dangerous than William Cormier. But he had never had such a personal connection to any one of them before. He glanced into the interrogation room to see the man of the hour being led inside and felt his blood begin to boil. If he really believed that William Cormier was Walter Cummings, he might be more eager. But all he knew for sure was that the man on the other side of the one-way mirror had nearly killed the woman he loved.

"Good luck," Andy said, a hand reaching out and lightly touching his arm as he headed out of the observation room. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked through the window, her brow furrowing in concern. She knew that Sam had been dead-set against this. He was afraid he would not be able to control his temper, and losing it inside an interrogation room with Cormier would not only get Donner's investigation nowhere, but it could jeopardize the assault charges. And while Andy had faith in his professional abilities, she knew that if their roles were reversed, and she was asked to question someone who had hurt him, she would not even be able to contemplate it. For that reason, she had not helped Donner's cause by trying to convince Sam to go through with this. However, she had not tried to talk him out of it either. She still carried around a lot of guilt – however unnecessary – over screwing up his investigation all those months ago, and knew what it would mean to him to have a hand in finally putting Anton Hill away.

"Swarek's good. If anyone can do this..." Jason said, sounding as if he was trying to convince the both of them.

"You're asking a lot," she pointed out.

Donner turned to her with a quirk of an eyebrow. "I wouldn't be asking so much of him if he hadn't chosen to get involved with a fellow officer, Andy. He's a smart guy. He knew the risk he was taking, and he chose you anyway. But that doesn't mean there aren't consequences, or that there aren't going to be tough choices."

Andy scowled. Whether it was his intention of not, Jason had just implied that by getting involved with him, she had just made Sam's life more difficult.

"Not that I can blame the guy," Jason added. "In fact, if things don't work out..."

She glanced over at the detective then. "Don't hold your breath. Things are going to work out." Her gaze moved back to the one-way mirror. "I know that now."

Sam walked into the interrogation room, his demeanour full of arrogance. If he still had any reservations, he had hidden them well. He grabbed one of the metal chairs, turned it around, and then straddled it as he sat, leaning forward and folding his forearms on the table. "I'm impressed, Will. I mean, I'm good. I'm so freaking good I scare myself sometimes. But I spent eight months in deep with Anton and I thought all you were was a ghost. _Eight_ months and I was convinced you didn't even exist. _You_, my friend,are better than freaking good."

William Cormier sat back in his chair with a slight smirk on his face. He had been left uncuffed and was enjoying the temporary freedom of being outside a jail cell. Added to that his belief that he had the upper hand, and he saw it as a good day. "I don't know what you're talking about. But why don't you bring in that hot little number that I had the pleasure of getting up close and personal with and maybe I'll remember something."

It took everything in Sam not to lunge across the table and choke the life out the smug son-of-a-bitch sitting there. However, he knew if he took the bait, he would be doing Andy and his badge a disservice. He wanted justice for his girlfriend, and he wanted Anton Hill off the streets. He knew he was the best chance to get both if he could just keep it together and not let Cormier get under his skin. He ran a hand through his hair and offered one of his lop-sided grins. As if he had not even heard Cormier's comment, he said, "You know, I always thought Emily was the reason Anton got to where he was. She could bury money better than anyone I've ever seen. But Walter Cummings, he was the real brains behind the operation."

Cormier just shook his head of thick, almost jet-black hair. He was a compact man, but muscular. And he was not about to be intimidated. "I have nothing to say to you. You bring Officer McNally in here, and maybe I'll reconsider."

"Officer McNally isn't available," Sam said sharply, yet still holding onto his control.

Cormier crossed his arms over his chest, his body language defiant and full of bravado.

Sam was not sure whether or not the man sitting across from him was as confident as he seemed, but years of reading and interrogating suspects told him that he was not going to get anywhere, no matter what he said or how long he sat there. Remaining in the room would only tempt fate. So in one quick motion, he stood and turned the chair back to its proper position, banging it against the table as he pushed it in, then he turned and walked out of the room. He stalked into the observation room, his fists clenched. "I told you this was a bad idea," he said to Donner.

"No, Sammy, we're still good. He hasn't refused to talk. He just refused to talk to _you_." Jason turned and looked at Andy with a grin. "Looks like you're up, McNally."


	7. Greater Good

**A/N **Sorry for another long delay between chapters. Working 12-hour days is not allowing me the luxury to write when I want to. However, I love this story and beg your patience for the next little while as I will be continuing to add to it as time allows.

**Disclaimer: **I still do not own anything related to _Rookie Blue_, ABC or GlobalTv.

* * *

_Jason turned and looked at Andy with a grin. "Looks like you're up, McNally."_

Andy was too stunned to speak.

Sam, on the other hand, stepped between the detective and his girlfriend and flashed Jason a look that no doubt would have scared a lesser man. "You're out of your mind, Donner. There's no way you're sending Andy in there to question the son-of-a-bitch who attacked her."

Before Donner could respond, Andy found her voice. "No, it's okay. I want to do this."

Sam turned to her and quirked an eyebrow incredulously. "Haven't we had this conversation before? About you being too damn brave for your own good? It's a bad idea, Andy. If you want me to stand here and list out all the reasons –"

"How 'bout I give you just one for why it's a _good_ idea? Emily. If we can put Hill away, we can finally get justice for her."

He crossed his arms over his chest, shaking his head.

Andy reached up and put her hands on his elbows, looking up at him imploringly. "I lost the case for you. Let me get it back."

"No way are you putting this on your shoulders, McNally. _Jerry_ blew my cover. _You_ walked into a bar with Anton Hill and saved Emily's life. You've done enough for her and you don't owe me anything."

"Maybe he'll tell me something. Isn't that a chance I have to take?" She looked past him at Jason Donner. "I'll do it. Just tell me what I should say."

Sam glowered as Donner prepped Andy. He had no doubt that his girlfriend could handle herself in there; he just did not think she should have to. All he saw when he looked at Cormier was the man responsible for the bruises that were still apparent on Andy's face and the skin hidden beneath her uniform. She did not know that he knew, but she had been having nightmares. This was not just some case she could just put behind her.

"It'll be okay," Andy assured Sam, turning to him once she had been fully briefed.

"I know you can do this," Swarek replied, looking at Donner as he added, "but that doesn't mean you should." His expression only intensified. "And if Cormier so much as looks at her funny – it's on you, Jason."

Andy leaned up and whispered in his ear, "You're hot when you're all pissed off and protective."

"Then I must be up there with George Clooney and that Reynolds guy right about now," he grumped.

Andy kissed his cheek. She knew it was a public display in front of another officer, but she really did not care when she was about to go face the man who had laid her out less than a week ago. "Uh-uh. They've got nothing on you."

Sam took a deep breath as she exited the room, his gaze affixed on the one-way mirror. His eyes narrowed as he watched Cormier sitting there on the steel chair, his legs stretched out under the table, his hands behind his head, a slight smirk on his face. He looked like he thought he had already won, and Swarek would be damned if that was the way this all played out.

"Okay, McNally, show time," Donner said as he and Andy stood outside the door to the interrogation room. "You think anything's off, give us the sign and Sammy and I will be in there like a shot."

Andy almost laughed. If anything even appeared to be going off script, Sam wouldn't need a sign. "I'm good," she said, though she was not as convinced as her words made her sound. She wondered if she could really do this. She bit her lip, took a deep breath, then turned and opened the door.

Cormier glanced up as the door opened, and a broad grin crossed his face as Andy walked inside. "Well, well, well. Look who's here."

Andy did well to hide any doubt or uncertainty. All business, she walked over and pulled out the chair across the table, sitting down and looking over at William Cormier, her face betraying no fear or anger. "I hear you wanted to talk to me. So talk."

"Look at that, Officer McNally is all official. And by the way, you look real hot in your uniform," he smirked.

Andy did not need to be in the observation room to know that Sam's hands were clenched, his jaw tight, and that the vein was pulsating in his neck. She hoped that not only would she make it through this unscathed, but that he would not go and do something stupid. "Do you really have something to tell me, William? Or did you just want to get together and reminisce about old times?" she asked, more bravado in her voice than she really felt.

"I'm sorry that beautiful face of yours got all messed up. But you have to learn that things like will happen when the police use excessive force," he continued.

Andy fought against letting her eyes widen in incredulity. That was how he was going to play off the assault? That he had been defending himself? Donner had warned her against discussing the attack, so, while it took everything in her to shake off the comment, she did not acknowledge it. It would appear she would have plenty of time to worry about it later – in court. "Tell me about Anton Hill," she said instead.

William sat back in his chair. "No one tells anyone _anything_ about Anton Hill and lives to see their next birthday. And I certainly have no incentive to be the exception, do I?"

"If you have information we can verify, and you manage to post bail while awaiting trial for the charges currently against you, you'll be given protection. Otherwise, there's no safer place than prison," Andy pointed out, clasping her hands together on the table in front of her, a slight smile on her face at the prospect of him serving out a long jail sentence.

"Oh, no, sweetheart, I won't be going to prison. See, if you want me to give you information about Anton Hill, the kind that will put him away, you'll be giving me immunity for anything I tell you that might also incriminate myself, _and_ all pending charges against me will be dropped." Cormier tented his own fingers together on the table and leaned forward a little. "So, I guess the question is: just how badly do you want Anton Hill?"

* * *

"Son-of-a-bitch," Sam muttered inside the observation room. His head snapped to his right as Jason pulled out his cell phone. "What are you doing?"

"I'm calling Blake McGonagall. I need the Crown to make the offer."

"Whoa. Whoa. What offer? You're not seriously considering –"

"I'm not seriously considering doing whatever this bastard asks so we can finally put Anton Hill behind bars? Uh, yeah, Sammy, no question. I'd think you'd be a little happier about this, considering you're this close to finally getting your 'white whale'. Come on. You know how this works, Swarek."

Sam crossed his arms over his chest, scowling. He relaxed a little when he saw Andy get up and leave the interrogation room, though the satisfied grin on William Cormier's face was enough to sour Sam even further. He watched as another uni came in and cuffed Cormier and led him back to lock-up, just as Andy walked back into the observation room. He offered his girlfriend a smile that did not quite reach his eyes as he said, "You did real good in there, McNally."

"He didn't tell me anything," she refuted.

"Actually he did, sweetheart."

"So, what now?"

"Now it goes to the Crown to see if they want to make the deal," he explained, nodding towards Donner who was speaking to someone on his cell phone.

"_What?_ You mean he could actually get what he wants?" she asked incredulously.

"Greater good, McNally. Greater good," Jason piped in, sliding his cell phone back into his suit jacket pocket.

"That means the Crown's going for the deal?" Sam asked.

"McGonagall's got to run it by his bosses. But this is the closest we've got since your cover was blown. I don't see them passing up the biggest chance we've had to get Hill off the streets. And you, Andy, you were great. Very impressive. I'll be in touch." And with that, Jason spun on his heels and left.

Her head spinning, Andy just stood there for a moment. "So he just gets off?" she finally asked.

"He'll go into protective custody. He won't be anywhere near here, Andy," Sam assured her.

"And you're okay with this?"

"I'm not happy about it. But, the more I think about it – Look, do you know what it means to have Anton Hill off the street? With the Landrys gone, and Bergen – Getting Hill means we virtually shut down the drug trade in the city. Along with the drugs go the weapons. Yeah, there will be a power vacuum for a while and someone will eventually take over, but it takes years to build up the kind of power Anton Hill has, and we'll be there," Sam explained.

She absorbed his words, her brow furrowed. Finally, she said softly, "I have to get back to work."

"Andy—"

"You better change. Best probably needs you back out on patrol since I'm still chained to a desk. I'll see you later." She headed out then, back down the hall towards the Squad Room.

Sam felt the urge to put his fist through something.

"Hey, so Donner told me we got Hill?" Jerry asked excitedly, joining Sam in the observation room.

"Getting there," Sam admitted, clearing his throat.

"Would think you'd be a hell of a lot happier, Sammy."

"Yeah, well, to get Hill, William Cormier is probably gonna get a pass."

Jerry nodded. "We knew that would probably happen. And I know you've got personal feelings about it because of what happened to McNally, but he'll get swept into protective custody somewhere across the country in all likelihood."

"Yeah, well, is that really justice?"

Hours later, a pizza in hand, Sam followed Andy into his house. She had barely said two words since they had finished their shift and left the precinct, and he knew just what was on her mind. Unfortunately, he had not been able to figure out what to say to her to make everything okay. He could see both sides, but he could understand why she was having a hard time with it.

"You want a beer?" he asked as he carried the pizza into the kitchen.

When Andy did not respond, he turned around and quickly realized she had not followed him. Instead, he heard her feet padding up the stairs, and a moment later, a door slam.

Sam sighed. He opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of beer for himself, screwing off the top and knocking back half of it before he set the bottle on the counter and headed upstairs. It was the bedroom door that Andy had shut, so he reached for the knob and turned it, heading into the room a little tentatively. He found Andy sitting up at the top of the bed, her knees pulled up to her chest as she leaned against the headboard. She did not acknowledge him as he entered the room. So he leaned against the door jamb and crossed his arms over his chest. "I know you're pissed off."

Her gaze rose to meet his then, and her expression was anything but happy. "Greater good? Seriously Sam?"

"Those were Donner's words, not mine," he pointed out.

"But you didn't disagree with him, did you?"

"Look, Andy, remember the day we drove to Sudbury to pick up Swann? We talked about this. It happens. Doesn't make it right, but it's the way things are. And sometimes, the deals that are made _are_ for the greater good. I don't like the idea of William Cormier getting released, but he's not going to be out walking the streets, in any position to get anywhere near you. And Hill will be behind bars where he belongs."

"And what about Cassie, huh? Is she going to be offered protective custody, too? Maybe I was collateral damage, but he knew what he was doing when he beat her up. So what kind of justice is she getting out of this?" Andy argued.

"The system's not perfect, Andy. We both know that. But I'm sure the Crown will make sure Cassie is safe."

She shook her head. "I can't believe you're rationalizing this! Whose side are you on, anyway?"

"I'm on your side. You know that. But this isn't my call."

"Please. Jason Donner listens to you. If you had fought him on this, he probably wouldn't have made that call to the Crown's office."

"You really believe that? Jason Donner had two goals today, sweetheart. One was getting Anton Hill. The second was getting into your pants. I don't think he cared about anything I had to say."

Andy's eyes flashed. She hopped up off the bed then and walked over to the dresser, opening one of the drawers and starting to pull out some clothes.

"Oh, c'mon, Andy. What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm going home. I don't really want to be here tonight."

Sam shook his head. He walked over to her and reached out to stop her from throwing any more of her clothes onto the bed. "Andy."

She pulled away from him, crossing her arms defiantly.

"Look, I'm sorry about that crack about Donner. But you can't just walk out every time you don't get your way."

"Get my way? This isn't about me not getting my way, Sam. How could you say that? You weren't there!"

He furrowed his brow. "What are you talking about?"

"I was standing over Cassie, praying that she was still breathing, and all of a sudden I was on the ground. I don't even know how I got half of the cuts or bruises. I just remember being scared. I remember his hands on my throat and the taste of blood and thinking I was never going to see you again or my dad – And it means nothing!"

Sam noticed she was trembling. He quickly closed what distance was between them and wrapped her in his arms. He kissed the top of her head as she clung to him, her hands grasping his biceps. She did not fight him; in fact, he felt like she was relieved to be surrounded by his embrace. So he just held her for a moment. "You realize that's the first you've really talked about it?" he finally said gently. He pulled back a bit, brushing her hair off her face and looking at her. "And it means something. If they make this deal, it doesn't mean it didn't happen, Andy. It doesn't make it any less real and it doesn't mean it doesn't matter. And it sure as hell doesn't mean I won't keep you safe."

"I don't need you –"

"Yeah, yeah, you can take care of yourself. I know. Doesn't mean I won't be an overprotective ass anyway."

She rolled her eyes.

Sam's thumb traced her lower lip as he looked at her earnestly. "I don't like this, Andy. I want Hill, but this wouldn't be my choice. But it's what we've got."

"So if you did have a say..."

"I don't know."

She nodded. She slid from his grasp and walked over to the corner of the room where her overnight bag had been left.

"So you're leaving?" he asked, his eyes narrowing in disbelief.

"For tonight. I need some time on my own."

"So the first time things get a little rough, you run. Why am I not surprised?" he muttered.

"I'm not running. I just need some time to wrap my head around all of this. If you don't understand that, then maybe we do have a problem."

He watched helplessly as she threw her clothes in her bag, and then disappeared into the ensuite to gather some of her toiletries. He thought about arguing further, but part of him – the stubborn pride – did not feel like banging his head against the wall. He also knew that Andy was just as stubborn and if he tried to talk her out of this, it would just make her want to go even more. So finally, he turned and headed back downstairs.

In the kitchen, he opened up the box of pizza and, without ceremony, pulled out a slice. He was frustrated and wound up and really wanted nothing more than to throw his beer bottle across the room and watch it shatter. Instead, he settled for picking it up and using the alcohol to wash down the pizza. And moments later, Andy appeared in the doorway. "I don't know what you want me to say," he shrugged.

"How 'bout that you love me and you'll see me in the morning?"

"You know that goes without saying. I do love you, McNally. And I haven't made some choice here that suggests otherwise."

She looked down at her feet then, her brow furrowing. "So you think I'm being an idiot."

"I think you've been through a horrible experience, it's catching up with you, and that things are happening that aren't fair. I also think that you don't know how to let someone in because you've spent your whole life pushing people away so you don't get hurt."

"You're just full of observations, aren't you?" she muttered.

He smirked at that. "I'm a cop. Comes with the territory." He sighed then. "Look, Andy, if you need some time on your own, I'm not going to fight you on it. I'm not in this to smother you or tell you what to do. But I _am_ in this. I guess I just need to know that you're in it with me."

She nodded slowly. "I'm not running away, Sam. It's one night." She took a deep breath, and then walked over to him. "I love you. I'll see you in the morning?"

Resigned, he nodded. However, he then quirked an eyebrow. "How were you planning on getting home?"

She shrugged sheepishly. "I thought maybe you could give me a ride?"

He shook his head with a chuckle. "You're a piece of work, you know that?"

"But you love me anyway."

"Yeah, I do. More than you know." He leaned down and kissed her gently. "C'mon, then, McNally. If I got to spend the night alone, I sure as hell want to be back in time to catch the last period of the Leafs game."


	8. Long, Dark Night

**A/N **Whoever was the first to dub Andy and Sam "McSwarek", this one's for you!

**Disclaimer: **I still do not own anything related to _Rookie Blue_, ABC or GlobalTv.

* * *

Andy tossed and turned. Her bed felt strange and unfamiliar. It had been a while since she had spent the night in it, and the last time, she had not been alone. In fact, the last time, she was pretty sure she had not even slept. She sighed. When Sam had kissed her before she had climbed out of his truck, she had ignored the voice inside her head that was screaming at her to ask him to stay. Now, as she shifted position for the millionth time, she was wondering when she was going to stop being her own worst enemy.

She reached over and picked up her cell phone. She stared at it for what seemed like an eternity before replacing it on the bedside table. She could not bring herself to dial his number, to move past her stubbornness and ask him to come over. She wanted him there, but she could not quite get it through her head that it was not a sign of weakness to go through this _with_ someone instead of by herself.

She was still struggling to find sleep forty-five minutes later. She finally got up and headed into the bathroom to get herself a glass of water. As she turned off the faucet, she thought she heard something rustling. She furrowed her brow – her baseball bat was under her bed. She glanced around the bathroom, looking for something – anything – she could arm herself with. All she could see was a toilet plunger and jumbo-sized bottle of conditioner. _Great. You see, officer, I clubbed him over the head with a two-litre of Pantene._

Seeing a shadow out in the bedroom, her breath hitched. "I have a gun!" she yelled, the words flying out before she could stop them.

"No, you don't, McNally. It's at the station."

_Sam!_ Her eyebrows knitted together angrily, she emerged from the bathroom to find Sam standing beside her bed. "What the hell?"

He pointed back towards the front door. "I'll fix the chain tomorrow. By the way, the security in this building sucks. Tomorrow we'll discuss alternate living arrangements."

She glanced over towards the door to see the security chain snapped in two. She looked back at him accusingly.

"Vice grips," he explained, working his dimples. "After I picked the lock. In my defence, I knocked first."

"What are you even doing here?"

He shrugged. "Couldn't sleep. You'd think that not having someone who steals the covers or who sleeps diagonally across the bed would make it easier, but it appears I adapt quickly."

"So you decided to break in?"

"I told you, I knocked first. What were the odds that you'd be in the bathroom?"

"And if I'd been asleep?"

Sam's expression quickly sobered and he looked at her pointedly. "You been to sleep yet?"

"That's not the point," she said defensively.

"You probably don't even realize it, but with the exception of the first night when you were hopped up on the painkillers, you haven't been able to fall asleep unless you've had my arms around you. I knew you wouldn't be asleep."

"So you always carry vice grips then?"

"I'm not always a cynic. I was hoping to be wrong – that you'd be sound asleep, that you wouldn't be plagued with nightmares...Then I would've just curled up on the couch and slipped out in the morning."

"I'm not – I mean, I haven't..." she trailed off, averting her gaze.

"Yeah, you have, McNally. Every night, like clockwork. You think I don't know, but I do. If you didn't want to talk about it, I wasn't going to push you. But I know."

For a moment, she said nothing. Then finally, she raised her eyes to meet his. "And yet you're still fine with the guy responsible getting a pass."

"No. I'm not okay with any of this. But I know that our system is screwed up sometimes, and that occasionally a perp gets to walk so we can nail some other perp. It doesn't make it right and it doesn't make it fair. But it is what it is. And so we deal with whatever hand we're dealt. This time is no different, except we get to deal with it _together_. See, I love you, Andy. And if there's ever a choice between you and the job, or you and a deal – whatever it is, I'll pick you each and every time. And _you're_ just gonna have to find some way to deal with _that_."

"But you didn't –"

"You are so damn stubborn. Yeah, Andy, actually I did. You were still in interrogation when Donner whipped out his cell to make the call to the Crown's office. Trust me, I wasn't offering to dial the number for him," he explained.

Andy's eyes widened a little, and then she muttered sheepishly, "Oh."

He raised his eyebrows. "It's always gonna be you, McNally. So, can we go to bed already? 'Cause standing here looking at you in that tiny little tank top and those boxers you swiped from me is doing things to me I'm not proud of when we're supposed to be having a serious conversation." His lips curled up into his trademark lop-sided grin and he was quickly rewarded when a small smile crossed Andy's face.

"I don't steal the covers, by the way."

"Yeah, you do. And for a tiny little thing, you sure take up a lot of space. But that's not a complaint. Fact is, I can't sleep anymore without you there. And if you so much as think about spreading that around at the barn, I will deny it until I'm blue in the face."

Andy rolled her eyes. However, she closed the distance between them and slid her hands up his chest. Her expression turned serious as she looked up at him through her eyelashes. "I guess I owe you an apology."

He ran his fingers through her hair before cupping her face in his hands. "You've got nothing to apologize for. I get that letting me in is hard for you. But you've trusted me with your life for most of the last year. Maybe it's time you start realizing you can trust me with everything else." He leaned down and kissed her, gently at first, until he felt her fisting his t-shirt. He then eagerly deepened the kiss and lifted her up, settling her on his hips before moving them over to the bed.

After they made love, Andy curled up in his arms and finally found the sleep that had been eluding her. For a while, Sam just laid there, listening to her breathe and getting lost in his thoughts, until he was convinced that she was out. Then finally, he let himself get pulled under as well.

_Andy juggled the bag of groceries in one arm and pulled out her cell phone with her other hand. She was in the middle of texting Sam, telling him she was going to attempt to cook something for dinner, when she was distracted by a cry. She furrowed her brow and glanced around the park. Across the way, near the sidewalk along the opposite side street, she saw a shadow, and quickly realized there was another shadow on the ground._

"_Hey!" she yelled, quickening her pace as she crossed the park._

_The larger shadow came into focus as a man standing over a woman, who was lying on the ground, bracing herself against a kick. _

_Andy stopped and quickly discarded the draft text message on her phone before dialling 9-1-1. She reported the assault and watched as the man seemingly ran off. More concerned about the woman on the ground than chasing down the perp, she booked it over and crouched down. "It's all right. There's an ambulance on the way," Andy assured her, taking in the blood from what appeared to be a broken nose. The woman was clutching her side, and Andy was pretty sure she had been kicked a couple times. "What's your name?"_

"_C-Cassie," the woman struggled to reply._

"_Okay, Cassie, just hold on, all right? My name's Andy. I'm a –" _

_Andy had no idea how it happened, but next thing she knew she was flying through the air and landing hard on her back. The wind knocked out of her, she then took a blow to her cheek, quickly followed by a few more. She finally got her bearings and tried to push off the weight of the figure on top of her, and losing the battle, at a distinct disadvantage because of both her size and the surprise of the attack. Soon, she felt hands around her throat, and the already dark sky quickly seemed to become darker..._

Andy bolted up, gasping for air.

Sam was startled awake, but he quickly shook off his own surprise and sat up, reaching out a comforting hand to lay on her shoulder. "Hey, hey, it's okay."

She flinched away from his touch, her eyes wide in terror.

"McNally, it's me. You're safe, sweetheart. It was just a nightmare," he assured her.

She took a few deep breaths as she looked around, trying to get her bearings. Finally figuring out where she was, she shrunk back a bit in embarrassment, running her fingers through her hair.

"You okay?" Sam asked gently.

She nodded slowly. "Fine."

He quirked an eyebrow. Even with only a hint of moonlight illuminating her face, he could see she was still freaked out.

"What?"

"We need to talk about this."

"I'm fine. It's over."

Ignoring her protest, he pushed, "What are they about? The night of or—"

"I'm not a suspect, Sam! Stop interrogating me!" she snapped suddenly. And before he could say any more, she slid out of bed and headed out into the kitchen.

Sam ran a hand through his hair. He did not want to upset her further, but he also knew she could not keep ignoring how the attack was affecting her. He climbed out of bed and followed her into the kitchen, where she was in the midst of pouring herself a glass of vodka. "If you wanna be pissed off, go right ahead. But I'm not letting this go. You need to talk about this."

She furrowed her brow.

"Look, you went with your instincts and you saved someone's life. You're a damn good cop, Andy. But you weren't a cop out there that night, and you were assaulted." He walked over and took the bottle of alcohol from her. "And trust me, this won't help."

Andy set down the glass in her other hand on the counter then glanced up at him. "I don't know how to make it stop."

Sam's expression softened. "You deal with it, sweetie. You started opening up earlier at my place, but then you just shut down again. If you don't wanna talk to me about it, then talk to Tommy, or Nash – or I can get you the name of a psychologist through the department. But you can't just go on as if nothing happened, or get pissed off about Cormier's deal and think that's handling it. It'll catch up to you, believe me."

She took a deep breath.

Sam reached over and laid a hand on her cheek. "What about the nightmares?"

She hesitated for a moment before she finally relented. "It's always the same dream, like a flashback on repeat. He's on top of me, his hands around my throat..."

Inwardly, he cringed at the description, but he kept his face neutral, wanting her to feel safe to continue.

"I just went with my gut. I mean, I wasn't thinking. I just reacted. And next thing I knew..." She closed her eyes, shuddering at the memory. "I don't know if I would have been brave enough to go check on Cassie, unarmed, if I knew he was still around. I – I crouched down to check on her, and next thing I knew, he was pulling me up and throwing me down, and then everything happened so fast. I felt his hand connect with my cheek, and there were a few more other blows, and then his hands were around my throat...Things were starting to go dark when Oliver yanked him off of me."

Sam dipped his head to meet her gaze, sensing there was more she had to say.

"I was honest with you that night outside the Penny. When we were in that bar with Anton Hill, I wasn't scared, because you were there. Even then, I knew you'd never let anything happen to me. But when Cormier was on top of me, and I had no back-up..."

"It's probably a good thing I wasn't there," he muttered. "He'd be dead and I'd be serving out a suspension or worse."

She offered a small smile at his instinct to protect her.

"Look, sweetheart, something like this is going to stay with you for a long time. But it will get easier. And you don't have to go through it on your own, okay? You get scared, you talk to me."

She nodded slowly, but her eyebrows knit together. "I'm a cop. I shouldn't be affected by something like this."

"Yeah, you're a cop. But that doesn't make you immune to fear. But all that's beside the point here. 'Cause you _weren't_ a cop that night. You were off-duty, unprepared to be dealing with a domestic in the middle of a park." He reached over and cupped her cheek. "Andy, you were a _victim_ out there. And I don't think you're going to get past this until you wrap your head around that."

"And my attacker's going free," she pointed out quietly.

"Maybe. But if he does, believe me, there will be conditions put in place before Cormier gets any sort of deal. And even then, there's gonna be an entire armed Division that's going to make sure he never gets within a hundred feet of you," he assured her. "Of course, that means this apartment with its crappy security's not going to cut it. You'll need to be living somewhere with a state-of-the-art alarm system, maybe an armed bodyguard..."

She quirked an eyebrow, fighting back a smile. "Really. And I guess you know someplace like that?"

He shrugged. "I might."

"You really want to share your house with someone who steals the covers and takes up the entire bed? Someone who can barely cook –"

"Someone I can't imagine my life without? Yeah. I do."

"Sam..."

He wrapped his arms around her. "You really don't get it, do you? I love you, McNally. With all of your issues and your crazy misconceptions. And I'm not gonna stop loving you just because things get a little messy or a little difficult – or we disagree about something. So get this through that pretty little hard-headed mind of yours: we're gonna last. I'm not going to leave you, and I'm not going to let you run away because things get a little scary. We're a hell of lot more than just partners engaging in some mind-blowing sex here."

"I know." She stood up on her tip-toes and kissed him gently. "I get it. I just need some patience sometimes."

"You're lucky, 'cause I'm a very patient man. Look, will you at least give some thought to moving in with me?"

Andy hesitated.

"I'm not asking you right now. Just think about it. I mean, what's the point of you paying rent when you're at my place all the time and have more stuff in my closet than I do? And sometimes I forget my vice grips in the garage..."

She giggled. "You're impossible."

"I just know when I've got a good thing. Now, I know we're off rotation and don't have anything to get up for in the morning, but you still need to get some sleep, baby. How 'bout it?"

"Sure. Just one more thing."

"What's that?"

"I know I frustrate you and I try your patience –"

"Andy, it's okay. Really. I'm just teasing you when I say things like that."

"Maybe, but I know it's true. I just – I want you to know that I love you. And I'm really trying. And just – Don't give up on me, okay? Because I want to be with you. And I will get to the place where it doesn't scare me so much. I just need you to wait for me."

He smiled. "I waited for you before I even knew I could have you. I'm not going anywhere now." He leaned down and captured her lips in a long, languid kiss. "You're it for me, McNally. And I never got what people meant when they said cheesy things like that before. But I get it now. Yeah, you might drive me crazy, but you also make my pulse race and my mind reel, and you make me think about things like making plans, and the future..."

"Can I ask what you see?"

"You really wanna know?"

She nodded.

"You and me in_ our_ house, maybe a dog, a couple little McSwareks..."

"McSwareks?" she laughed.

He shrugged.

"And how do you plan on getting these _McSwareks_?"

"The good ol' fashioned way. Lots of that mind-blowing sex I was talking about earlier. And I know you're just starting out, so I'm not talking about tomorrow or even next year. But I can see it, Andy." He leaned forward and kissed her forehead lightly. "Whatever happens with Cormier and Hill, we'll get through it, okay?"

She took his hand and intertwined their fingers. "Let's worry about that tomorrow. I think I want to go back to bed and try dreaming about that picture you just painted for tonight."


	9. McSwareks

**A/N **Sorry for another long delay. I have never been so stressed out in my life! I thought a big promotion at work would be great, but all it's done so far is make my blood pressure rise and give me sleepless nights. I finally decided to take some me-time and indulge in some McSwarek fun. The next chapter is also almost finished so there will not be such a lag between posts. I hope everyone is having a lovely holiday season! xoxoxoxo mustlovecat

**Disclaimer: **I still do not own anything related to _Rookie Blue_, ABC or GlobalTv.

* * *

Traci quirked an eyebrow. "_McSwareks_? What is this, _Grey's Anatomy_? Regardless, you've got to be more creative than that. Maybe McYummy or—"

"No, McSwareks, like little Sams and Andys. He wants to have kids, Traci!" she exclaimed in a loud whisper, managing to capture the attention of the two other women in the locker room. Andy just waved at them sheepishly before shutting her locker and sitting down on the bench to tie up her shoes, knowing they were probably going to be late for Parade.

It was her first shift back to full duties and she was looking forward to getting back to work. She had enjoyed the past few days off. She had managed to distance herself from her own assault case, and had taken the opportunity to really heal and to indulge in some quality Sam-Andy time. However, every time silence fell between the new lovers and she would catch a somewhat wistful expression on his face, she would remember the picture he had painted for them of a future together. The _future_, however, was a concept she had never allowed herself time to think about before.

"Oh. Well, of course he does, sweetie. The man's hopelessly in love with you. I didn't have to go to the Academy to figure that much out," Nash pointed out once the other female officers had left the room.

"But me? A mom? I had a goldfish once. I forgot to feed it and it died."

Traci laughed. "Kids let you know when they're hungry, Andy. It's pretty much impossible to just forget to feed them. And if you want my opinion, I think you'll be a great mom someday."

Andy looked at her best friend sceptically.

"Hey, Nash, McNally, you might not be rooks anymore, but you still gotta put in an appearance," Sam said, opening the door to the locker room with little ceremony. He leaned against it to hold it open, crossing his arms and quirking an eyebrow.

Traci shook her head with a roll of her eyes, shutting her locker. "Yeah, yeah. Keep your shirt on," she kidded. "And I mean literally. It is okay to leave you two alone in here, right?"

"Really Nash?" Swarek inquired.

She just laughed as she walked past him and headed down the corridor towards the Parade Room.

Sam shook his head and looked back towards his girlfriend. "Hey. You okay?" he asked, noticing that she seemed a little distracted, and not deriving nearly the same pleasure from his presence as Nash had.

She tied up her other shoe then stood up. "Sure. I'm fine. But we're going to be late for Parade." She walked over and kissed his cheek quickly, then headed down the hallway.

Sam grinned at the brief contact before he turned to follow her, although he was not totally convinced that everything was fine. Knowing they would have plenty of time to talk in the squad car, he walked into the Parade Room and perched himself in his usual chair next to Ollie. He noticed his girlfriend worrying her lip as she sat next to Traci and decided that they would indeed be having a conversation once the formalities of the day were over.

Best went through the usual routine of updates and assignments, and then dismissed the group. However, not before he said, "McNally, Swarek, a minute."

Andy furrowed her brow and looked towards Sam, who just shrugged as they approached their Staff Sergeant.

"What's up, Frank?" Sam inquired.

Best waited until the room had emptied, then he looked at the two officers. "Word just came down from Headquarters. The deal with Cormier's been made. They've been able to corroborate the information he's been providing Donner over the past few days."

"So Anton Hill's finally going down?" Swarek asked, almost afraid to get his hopes up again.

"He's on his way. There's a task force being assembled, and Guns and Gangs wants you on it, Sam."

Sam raised his eyebrows. "When?"

"Tomorrow. It'll just be a temporary re-assignment, until the arrest is made and the organization is shut down. Then I get you back full-time. That's if you agree."

"Of course. I'm not passing up the chance to take this son-of-a-bitch down once and for all." He turned to his girlfriend then, noticing the less than ecstatic expression on her face. He swallowed hard then looked back at Best. "And Cormier?"

"All charges are dropped, full immunity – and a new life and new identity in parts unknown. But all it takes is one step within a hundred feet of McNally or Cassie Valens, and the deal's off. He'll be looking at a life sentence for his involvement in both assaults and with the Hill organization," Frank explained. He looked pointedly at Andy. "I'm not letting one of my own be put at risk. Those conditions aren't negotiable, Andy. You'll be safe. I know it's not exactly justice –"

"The greater good," she muttered. "Thanks for the update, sir." She nodded at Sam. "I'll meet you at the car." With that, she turned and walked out of the room.

Sam sighed, running a hand over his face. "I know this is the best possible outcome, but I also get where McNally is coming from. Hell, _I _want to see Cormier behind bars for the rest of his life."

"We all would. But getting Anton Hill off the streets once and for all..."

"Yeah, I know."

"You're to report to Headquarters at nine tomorrow morning. Donner will be heading up the task force, but he requested you specifically. He knows you've got the inside knowledge to help take Hill down."

"All right. Well, I better get to the car. I'll see you later."

Andy was already sitting in the passenger seat and looking at the computer when Sam climbed into the driver's side. He buckled up, but made no moves to start the car. Instead, he turned to look at her. "You want to talk?"

She shrugged. "We knew this was going to happen. There's really not much to talk about."

"Andy..."

"I'm not happy about it, but I know that getting Hill off the streets is the bigger goal. If making this deal helps accomplish that, I understand why it needs to be done. Doesn't mean I have to like it. But I get it." She looked at him with a nod. "I get it. And I'm not mad."

"You are. A little."

She rolled her eyes but smile a little. "Fine. Maybe. A little."

"I know it doesn't seem like justice, sweetheart. So, is that what was bothering you earlier?"

She knit her eyebrows together in confusion then. "Earlier?"

"Yeah. In the locker room. It looked like I interrupted something between you and Nash."

"Oh, that. No. It was nothing. There's nothing on the scanner yet," she pointed out, desperate to change the subject.

"We'll just head on our usual route then. How 'bout some breakfast?" He glanced over her as he turned on the ignition, flashing her his dimples. "We didn't exactly have time to eat this morning."

A light blush coloured her face as she remembered their joint shower to save time as they were already running late. "Okay."

A while later, they were cruising through the streets, fed and caffeinated, and both grateful that so far, it had been a slow day. Sam glanced over at his girlfriend occasionally, noticing that she was unusually quiet. Despite her insistence that there was nothing on her mind, he knew that if it was not Cormier, there was definitely something else weighing her down. Keeping one hand on the steering wheel, he reached over and laid his other hand on her leg.

She looked over at him in surprise.

"Makes me nervous when you're this quiet, sweetheart. What's going through that beautiful head of yours?" he questioned.

She hesitated for a moment. The fact of the matter was that as disappointed as she was that the deal with Cormier had gone through, she had known for days that it was a probability. She had made peace with it. And in doing so, that had meant that she had to look forward and look at what her life was going to be like after moving past the assault. And although she had no problem acknowledging that that life was going to involve Sam, the more she thought about it, the more all of the other stuff he had suggested was freaking her out. "I'm going to be a horrible mom," she finally blurted out.

Sam raised his eyebrows. "Come again?"

"My mom left and it took me a long time to stop hating her for that. My dad's an alcoholic. I have serious trust issues, Sam. And commitment issues. I mean, look at how much time I wasted pushing you away. You really think those are good things to pass on to a kid? I am so going to mess up any child I have. You really need to reconsider."

"I need to reconsider? Reconsider what?" he asked incredulously.

"Having any kind of future with me. I'm just going to mess things up for you," she insisted.

Sam shook his head. "You are seriously the most frustrating woman I've ever met." He turned right into the next alley they hit and killed the ignition to the cruiser. He unbuckled his belt and shifted in his seat, his arm sliding across the back, his fingers finding her collar and gently caressing her neck. "Why would I want to reconsider having a future with you when I'm happier than I've ever been, huh? I like to think I'm a pretty smart guy, McNally. I'm not just with you 'cause the sex is mind-blowing. I'm with you 'cause I happen to love being with you. I love _you_. Do I know you have issues? Yeah. Do they make me want to be with you any less? No way in hell. You're it for me, Andy. I knew that the very first day when you waltzed into the locker room and called me on my crap. You've got more courage than anyone I've ever met."

"I'm scared out of my mind," she said quietly.

He cupped her face with his hand. "I believe someone once said something to the effect that 'courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something is more important than fear.' I happen to think we're more important. Andy, I want a life with you. And I happen to believe that you can do this with me."

"You have a lot of faith."

"When it comes to you and me, yeah, I do. Might not be rational or make much sense, but I got no doubts. You know, I've spent a lot of years on my own. I kind've got used to it, never really thought I wanted or needed anything more. Then you showed up. And now I know I can't imagine my life without you in it. And when I brought up kids, I wasn't talking about right now. I know we have a ways to go before we're in the right place for that. But Andy, when the time's right, you'll be a good mom. Because all those qualities that make you a good cop – your strength, courage, fire, loyalty, that lion's heart – there all going to help make you a good parent. And remember, you won't be doing it alone."

She offered a small smile. "You can be very convincing when you're passionate about something."

He flashed his dimples. He leaned over and kissed her, gently at first before quickly deepening the kiss and making her sigh. His hands were soon playing with the buttons on her uniform.

"Sam! Here?" she asked, her eyes wide as they came up for air.

He shrugged. "There's no one around, things are quiet ... If we get a call, we get a call."

She wrapped her arms around his neck. "You're insatiable."

"That a compliment or a complaint?" he asked, his eyes dancing.

"A compliment, of course." She met his lips in another long and languid kiss.

Andy had Sam's uniform half-unbuttoned when the radio crackled to life. "Domestic at Westminster and Mutual."

Sam groaned, pulling away from Andy and grabbing the radio. "Yeah, fifteen nineteen here. We're on our way."

She laughed softly at the frustrated expression on his face. "We'll pick this up later?"

"You better believe it." He turned on the lights and pulled the cruiser out of the alley and back into traffic.

"I'm going to miss riding with you for the next while," she said with a sigh as they headed towards the scene.

"Me, too. But think of all the fun we'll have catching up after hours, huh?" He fired her off a wink, then gave his full attention to the traffic ahead.

Andy sat back in her seat. "Yep. McYummy."


	10. The Calm

**A/N **Well, real life really sucks sometimes! I will not bore you with excuses for the lack of updates, but I will say there was a totalled car involved and it was not just the busy-ness of life that kept me from posting. I hope you are all still interested in reading!

**Disclaimer: **I still do not own anything related to _Rookie Blue_, ABC or GlobalTv.

"So, how long do you think this Task Force will take?" Andy asked Sam as they laid together in his bed after making love. She had been resting with her head on his chest, but she shifted so her weight was resting on her elbow and she could look at him. She took in his strong features, how everything about him seemed so self-assured and sexy. Every once and a while, the realization that he was hers would hit her again and her heart would start racing.

"I don't know. Could be days, could be weeks. Cormier's feeding us the intel, but we still have to find some concrete proof for the Crown to be able to make charges stick. No doubt Hill knows by now that Cormier's been picked up and is talking. He probably started burying things the night of your attack," Sam explained. He reached over and brushed her hair off her face, his hand lingering against her cheek.

She grew quiet for a moment at the reference to her getting hurt, before she finally crinkled her nose. "I don't want to ride with anyone else."

Sam smirked then. "Yeah, sweetheart, I can't say I blame you there. I _am_ definitely one-of-a-kind. And you sure as hell better not go engaging in any _our_ extra-curricular activities if you're riding with Diaz or Epstein."

"You mean like when you practically ravished me in the squad car this afternoon?" she giggled.

"Too bad we were interrupted by that Domestic that wasn't," he grumbled, pulling her down on top of him. "I woulda shown you exactly what other uses a T.P.S. cruiser has."

"I think we more than made up for it when we got home, huh?" she managed to say before he silenced her with a deep, languid kiss. She sighed as they came back up for air.

They chatted for a while, until finally Sam said, "I'm going for a glass of water. You want one?"

"Sure."

He slipped out of bed and pulled on his boxers before padding through the house to the kitchen. He had expected Andy to stay behind, but as he pulled out the pitcher of water from the refrigerator, he heard her soft foot falls on the stairs. He gave her an appreciate once-over as she appeared in the doorway, clad only in his old grey Police College t-shirt. They had been together going on two months now, but he had a feeling that no matter how much time passed, she would still take his breath away.

He poured them each a glass of water, then after putting the pitcher back in the fridge, he closed the distance between them, handing her one.

She clinked her glass against his with a smile, and then took a sip. "So, I've, uh – I've been thinking about the suggestion you made the other the night."

"You'll have to refresh my memory, McNally. With my infinite wisdom and years of experience, I'm always making brilliant suggestions," he quipped.

Andy rolled her eyes. "Just for that...never mind." She went to turn on her heels to head into the living room, but stopped when she felt Sam's hand gently grasp her bicep. She turned back and quirked an eyebrow.

"Sorry. Sorry. Go ahead." He set his glass down on the counter, and then leaned back against it, letting her know he was all ears.

She hesitated then, finding that her heart was suddenly pounding. She was not used to putting herself out there on the line and trusting that it would not blow up in her face. Her first instinct was always self-preservation, and that usually guarding the wall she put up between herself and whatever it was that had the power to hurt her. But somehow Sam made her believe that he would never hurt her. So with that thought in mind, the doubts that were starting to cloud her mind dissipated. She took a deep breath. "Um, I was just – Were you serious about us living together?" she finally asked.

Once he got over the shock of her question, a broad smile crossed his face. "Serious as I've ever been about anything."

She shrugged a little. "It's just, I mean – Because the security in my building really isn't that great."

"Agreed. Security is definitely an issue."

"And I'm here all the time anyway..."

"Yep. Can't get rid of you. Just like a bad penny..."

She scowled; he smirked.

Sam's dimples were highly visible as he bridged the distance between them. "I mean, there's all this girly stuff all over my bathroom – how many bottles of stuff do you chicks need anyway? And do you realize that there's more of your clothes my closet than my own? And what's up with that bagged salad crap in my refrigerator? And don't get me started on my laundry that has suddenly started smelling like spring something-or-other..."

"You like how your laundry smells," she volleyed back with a roll of her eyes.

"I like how _you _smell." He drew her close, wrapping her in his arms. "I like how you look all curled up on my couch when the hockey game's on, and how I don't have to explain icing whenever it's called. And I like having to shower with you in the morning so we're not late for Parade. But you know what I really like? It's how I can tell you're comfortable here. You seem like yourself, like you don't have to try to be anything other than what you are when you're here with me. So, yeah, McNally, I was serious about you moving in here. So what do you say? You game?"

She slid her hands up his chest. "Yeah, I think I am."

He picked her up and spun her around, ecstatic. He had never wanted anything as much as he wanted to be with her, and he knew what a big step it was for her to push past all of her trust and commitment issues and agree to give up her one place of escape. It was huge for her to give herself over to him like that, and he had no intention of blowing it – or taking it for granted. He set her back down on her feet, then cupped her face in his hands and leaned down, kissing her passionately.

When they came up for air, she leaned her forehead against his.

"You're not hyperventilating," he teased her.

"That's 'cause I feel more at home here than I have anywhere else since..." She trailed off, shrugging, averting her gaze. "Well, it's been a long time since I felt like someplace was really home. I mean, I liked my apartment, but...Well, you weren't there."

Sam took her chin between his thumb and forefinger and tilted her head up, bringing her eyes back up to meet his. "You don't have to worry about me leaving."

She worried her lip for a moment before she finally nodded. "I know. We should get some sleep. You've got a big day tomorrow."

"Andy..."

"I know, Sam. I think – I mean, I _know_. It scares me that I'm so sure, but I am. Do you know that you're the one person who has never let me down? I've never thought twice about trusting you with my life. I've just always known that you'd have my back."

Sam nodded. "I always will. Just like I know you've got mine. It's like I said the night at the Mermaid – there's no one else I'd rather go through any door with."

She smiled a little shyly. "I love you, you know."

"Then that makes me pretty damn lucky." He leaned down and kissed her again gently. "I love you, too, Andy."

Andy fell asleep soon after they returned to bed, but Sam was too amped up to sleep. As much as he wanted Andy living with him, he had honestly thought he was going to have to wait a long time for her to be ready to take that step. He had been prepared to wait – he knew that she was it for him and he could be as patient as she needed him to be. Knowing that it was going to happen soon made him happier than he had ever been. And between that and knowing that Hill was on the verge of being taken down, it just felt like everything was falling into place perfectly.

Of course, Sam had been around a while and knew there was no such thing as perfection. He was successfully tearing down the walls Andy had long ago built up around herself, but he knew that no matter what he did, there was always going to be a part of her that would be afraid to trust in him completely. She had been left and let down by the people she was supposed to be able to count on more than anyone else. It was only natural that she would have some trepidation and some issues. He knew that despite the fact that he would be willing to go down to City Hall tomorrow and slap down a money order for a marriage licence, she was a long way away from being ready for something quite so defined. So, he would just bide his time and spend every moment he could proving to her that he was always going to be there.

He also knew that Hill was not going to go quietly. Men like Anton Hill did not give up easily, and they rarely made mistakes. Sam hoped that between Donner and himself, they could take Cormier's intel and put together an air-tight case. He hated the idea of having to rely at all on the man who had dared to lay a hand on the woman he loved, but he knew he had to play the hand he had been dealt – and finally putting Hill behind bars would at least take some of the sting out of the sacrifice.

Andy whimpered in her sleep then, pulling Sam from his thoughts. The nightmares were still plaguing her occasionally, and he could tell she was in the throes of one now. He moved up behind her and slid his arms around her. Although she did not awaken, she seemed to calm. He dropped a kiss against her hair. All he could hope for was that this Task Force would find some kind of justice so she could finally have some peace. And with that, he finally let himself get pulled under, his last thought that at the very least, Andy would fall asleep safe in his bed for all the days ahead.


	11. Before the Storm

**A/N **Sorry for another unforgivably long delay. I'm basically working 3 jobs (only 1 paid) and I had not been feeling very inspired in my downtime! However, my schedule has finally lightened up a little and the first few episodes of Season 2 have got my creative juices flowing. So here is another instalment. Hope you enjoy the re-introduction to _Hold On_.

* * *

"I'm moving in with Sam."

Traci slammed on the brakes in the cruiser, the revelation and the red light ahead nearly causing her to crash into the car in front of her. "What?" she asked, looking over at her best friend.

Andy shrugged. "I'm over there all the time anyway. It makes sense."

Traci could not help but smirk at the brunette sitting in the passenger seat. "You really have issues expressing yourself, don't you? You're moving in with Sexy Sam because it's _convenient_?"

"No," she admitted with a blush working its way up her neck. "Fine. I'm in love him. Like _really_ – like ridiculously – in love with him. There. You happy?"

"Yes. Go on…"

She sighed. "You know how when you love someone so much that sometimes you feel like you can't breathe? But in a really good way? That's how I feel. I really didn't know it could be like this. Seriously. Why didn't you tell me? Really, you couldn't tell me?"

Traci laughed at Andy's rambling. "_This_ is something you have to figure out for yourself. But I'm glad you're so happy. And Swarek – Well, a happy Swarek is much easier to be around than a miserable one."

Andy rolled her eyes. She sat back in the passenger seat as Traci started driving again, quickly getting lost in her own thoughts. "And he's so damn sexy. I swear, one look from that man and I'm a puddle of mush. He just gets my heart going, you know? I don't know what I'd do…" she trailed off, her heart starting to pound then with a startling realization.

"What you'd do…? What's wrong?" Nash asked.

"What if this task force makes him wish he hadn't pulled his application from Guns and Gangs?"

"He's not going to leave Fifteen, Andy."

"But what if he does? C'mon. Sam has spent more time under cover than in uniform the last few years. The last time, he was gone for _eight_ months. And it would have been longer if I hadn't blown the whole thing. He couldn't have done that if he didn't love it. If he wasn't damn _good_ at it. They wouldn't have picked him for this task force if he wasn't one of the best. You know that's true." She chewed on her lip, her brow furrowing. Talking herself down from feeling on top of the world to being completely petrified in five seconds flat was really a rare talent, and one she wished she did not possess.

"Remember after the black out? You were trying so hard to be girlfriend of the year, and Swarek was acting like the world's biggest ass –"

"No, he – He was just – I kinda almost hooked up with him and then just left and then I took off to Luke's cabin…He was just reacting and–"

"And he was being an ass. But my point is, if there was ever a time for him to go running off to Guns and Gangs, it would have been then. I mean, really, it couldn't have been easy for him seeing you with Callaghan when he felt the way he did about you. You know he was in love with you back then. He might not have even been able to admit it to himself, and you were probably completely oblivious, but he was in love with you, Andy. He didn't know if he would ever get the chance to be with you, but he didn't leave. He stayed. You want to know why?"

"Trace…"

"He stayed because of _you_. Because even then, he did not want to be away from you. Now that you guys are together and you're so happy it's making my rest teeth hurt, he definitely _not_ going to leave. You're his world, Andy. Trust me, most women would give anything for their man to feel about them the way that Swarek feels about you. He's not going anywhere."

Andy considered her best friend's words. She knew Sam loved her. For the first time in her life, she was confident, both in herself, and in someone else's feelings for her. However, as much as Sam loved her, he also loved his job. He had given most of his life to the Toronto Police Services. If anyone bled blue, it was Sam Swarek. And while he had said that he had not had much to leave behind before she jumped him in that alley, if some dream assignment came along now and he knew she would still be there, would he really be able to pass it up?

* * *

Sam sauntered into one of the conference rooms at Headquarters, wired on caffeine and lack of sleep – and already dreading what he anticipated would be a string of long days ahead. When he spotted the boxes of files already piled up high on the tables, he knew he was in for a long haul. No matter how many pairs of eyes they got to pour over all of the intelligence gathered from numerous sources and investigations – probably much of it from his own eight months undercover –putting together a solid case against someone like Anton Hill was going to require a lot of effort.

"Swarek. Glad you agreed to the assignment," Donovan Boyd said as he walked into the room.

Sam shook Boyd's outstretched hand with a nod. "There was no question. You know I want Hill off the street, and the sooner the better."

"Yeah, yeah, no argument here."

"So, where's everyone else?" He glanced down at his watch. "I'm not late, am I?"

"No. We're still pulling resources, though. So far, we've got Brady Wells from the Drug Squad, Donner, of course, and Will Talon who's been working out of the 5-2. They'll all be here soon, but I am still pushing on getting sign-off from the brass for even more hands."

Sam nodded. "I've worked with Talon before. And Donner, of course. I guess having Headquarters sanction _any_ dedicated manpower on this after months of the case being dormant is progress."

"You have no idea. Listen, there was a reason I asked for you to come in before everyone else," Boyd started then.

Sam raised an eyebrow.

"You pulled your request from Guns and Gangs."

Swarek took a breath, leaning against the table and crossing his arms over his chest. "Yeah. Yeah, I did."

"You have too many beers one night at the Penny? What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking very clearly when I pulled the application, buddy."

Boyd shook his head. "This have anything to do with the fact that you're sleeping with McNally?"

"I don't think that's any of your business," Sam glowered.

"You're a damn good cop, Sammy. And we need you on the Squad. Giving that up for a badge bunny – hot as she may be –"

"McNally's no badge bunny. She _wears_ the badge, remember? She's turned into a fine copper in her own right. You saw that yourself the night we busted Bergen and the Landrys. She held her own at the Mermaid and saved my ass – and the deal – in the process."

"She's still a rook. Do I have to remind you that if she hadn't burned you, we wouldn't even be here right now? Hill would already be off the streets!" Boyd pointed out.

"You know what I've learned since she _burned _me? Not having anything to leave behind – or to come home to – makes doing what we do kind of pointless," Sam explained. "Look, Don, I want Hill as much as you do. Hell, I probably want him a hell of a lot more. But I'm sorry, man, there _is _something that is more important to me now. You make this job your life and you're going to wake up one day with a pension, a cheap gold watch, and nothing else. I'm not satisfied with that. You shouldn't be either."

Boyd just shook his head. "I can't believe you're banging the rookie that cost you eight months," he muttered incredulously.

Sam narrowed his eyes. "You'll show McNally some respect, Don, or I'm out of here. But I want this son-of-a-bitch dead and buried – at the very least, rotting away in a jail cell for the rest of his life. Now I sure as hell am not happy about the fact that in order to get a lead now, the guy who laid his hands on Andy gets to walk free, but this is the hand we've been dealt. We'll get Hill. But you need me to do it."

"And then you'll go back to shifts on patrol? You're really telling me that after all the years you've put in, that's what you're gonna settle for? You should be _running_ this Squad, Sam!"

"I don't see how doing what I love – and getting to have a life outside of it – is settling." Swarek quirked an eyebrow. "Someone put you up to this."

"Put me up to what? Trying to convince you that you're making the biggest mistake of your life? I didn't need anyone's help with that one, man."

"Right."

Boyd shrugged. "Though Donner was the one that told me you'd pulled your application."

Sam chuckled wryly. "Ah, well this makes a hell of a lot more sense now. He's been panting after McNally since he first laid eyes on her. What, he thinks if I get sent away on some UC assignment, the door will be wide open for him to step in? He's an idiot."

"He's a damn good detective."

"He's still an idiot," Sam muttered. "I'm here because I want to finish what I started. We're going to take Cormier's intel and we're gonna take Hill down once and for all. Then when we're finished, I'm going back to Fifteen where I will happily work the streets as long as they let me." As if to punctuate the fact that the topic was no longer open for discussion, he walked over and yanked the top off of one of the boxes of files and pulled out a stack of folders. The sooner they found the evidence they needed, the sooner he could get back to what had become a hell of a lot more important to him.

Hours later, Sam needed air. He was not one for paperwork, which was exactly why he had never tried to make detective. He needed to be _doing_, not reading and analyzing. So he grabbed a hotdog from one of the carts that lined the corners of the city streets, and then he walked down College Street and turned onto Yonge. He suddenly found himself looking in the window of one of the myriad of jewellery stores – at rings. Diamond rings. Rings he could not help but notice did not seem to shout Andy to him. He was about to walk away, figuring it was because they were not at the place to even be contemplating marriage. But then his eyes caught sight of it and he was transfixed. Small, simple, tasteful. Perfectly Andy.

Without even knowing how it happened, he was inside the store asking to see the ring. And then he was pulling out his credit card. And then he was standing back out on the street almost vibrating with excitement. Finally, he was picturing his girlfriend running for the hills when he pulled out the little black velvet box. He chuckled, pocketing the ring. He knew it was going to sit in a drawer for a while. Maybe a long while. But one day, when he knew Andy would not take off running, he would pull out the ring and slide it onto her finger.

He felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. He pulled it out, hoping it was the woman who had been occupying his mind for most of the day, and grinning when he saw her name flashing up on the call display. "Hey, beautiful. Let me guess. You're riding with Epstein and he won't shut up."

"N-no. Sam…Cormier's dead."


	12. Going Fishing

**A/N I apologize for another unforgivably long delay between chapters, but I would rather crank out chapters at a slow pace than discontinue the story altogether. So, here goes another instalment…**

* * *

"McNally. Andy?" Sam wandered into the women's locker room, figuring that it was well after end of shift so the chances of stumbling upon any female officers in mid-dress was slim to none. Not that he would have noticed anyway. All other women had disappeared from view the day Andy broke through the door of that run-down apartment. And now that he knew what every inch of her looked like underneath that uniform…He shook the thoughts from his head, as well as trying to forget about the weight of the box in his jacket pocket. Tonight was _definitely_ not the night to ponder how best to give her that ring.

Just as he turned the corner of the bank of lockers, Andy was slamming hers shut. She glanced up at him with a bright but weary smile. "Hey."

"Hey yourself." He looked her over, having changed out of her uniform into jeans and a white v-neck t-shirt, a police college hoodie he recognized as his own pulled on over top. "You all right?"

"You going to make me go to the department shrink if I admit I'm not all that upset that William Cormier's dead?"

"I think I'd be pissed that you had suddenly started lying to me if you told me you were." He shoved his hands into the pockets of his own jeans. "Autopsy's scheduled for tomorrow. Preliminary looks like a heart attack, but considering the guy was twenty-seven and just ratted out the city's biggest drug runner, I'm not convinced."

"But Sam, he's been in protective custody," she replied, not liking the implication.

"I know. And I don't want to go there until we know more. But while I hate to say it, it's not impossible to think Hill could have someone on the inside."

"This is a freaking mess. If he's dead because Hill got to him through one of our own…That means that Anton Hill's more dangerous than I thought. And now you're mixed up in a task force whose only mandate is to bring him down. That makes you a target, Sam."

"I'm fine, Andy."

She took a breath. She walked over and wrapped her arms around him, practically sinking into his embrace. "I missed you today."

"Yeah, me, too." He kissed the top of her head.

"What's that in your pocket?" she asked then.

Sam quirked an eyebrow, about to question her pulling out the old 'is that your gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me' routine, until he realized she had felt the ring box. Crap. He tightened his embrace so she could not see his face as he scrambled for something to say. "Uh, I picked up something for Jerry since I was over on Yonge at lunch today."

Andy's eyes widened. She pulled back and looked up at her boyfriend incredulously. "A ring?"

"N-no. I think earrings or something. I didn't look."

She grinned then. "Let's look. Trace is my best friend. I know her taste. I can tell him if he's way off or not."

"We shouldn't. It's really none of our business," he continued, really hoping she would drop it. It was bad enough he was going to have to suggest to Jerry that he buy his girlfriend a new pair of earrings now.

"Oh, please." She reached into his pocket and pulled out the box.

Sam reached out and grabbed her hand in his much larger one." McNally…" he started warningly. "Please don't. And you can't tell Nash about this. Jer's – He's really nervous right now, okay? They just got back on solid ground and he's trying his best to play it cool, but you know he's really serious about this. Just let them do this their own way. Stay out of it?"

She cocked her head, a smile crossing her face. "You're a really good friend, you know that? Tell Jerry he has nothing to worry about. Traci feels exactly the same way." She put the box back into his pocket, leaning up and kissing him quickly. "I should know. About you being a good friend, I mean."

Sam relaxed, having dodged a huge bullet. He drew his girlfriend closer. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. I think that's why we work so well. Because we were friends first."

He nodded. He often thought about how things would have gone if she had left with him that night from the Black Penny. The sex would have been incredible, he knew that much. But he had just come off eight months undercover, she was as green as they came, and he had a feeling neither would have been smart enough to hold on and see if they could find something real. And while he had turned into a complete jerk after their near hook-up the night of the blackout, ruled by a completely foreign emotion – jealousy – he knew now that it just was not their time then. That night was not about them and even if she had stayed, it would have been about her losing herself and not about finding him. No, things had worked out exactly as they were supposed to. Things were good. Damn good. He leaned down and kissed her gently. "Let's go home."

She grinned. "I like the sound of that."

He kissed the tip of her nose with a grin of his own, and then led her out of the locker room and through the precinct. They decided to forego the Penny for tonight and headed back to Sam's house after picking up a pizza on the way. Not long after walking in through the front door, they were stretched out on the couch, making out like a couple of teenagers, while plates of half-eaten pizza and semi-full bottles of beer laid forgotten on the coffee table and a hockey game played on the plasma.

"I don't like riding with anyone but you," Andy said when they came up for air. "Even if it's with Traci."

Sam flashed his dimples. "Yeah, well, I don't really like pushing paper. But it's just a while longer, sweetheart. Once Hill's behind bars…"

"Unless Boyd uses this time to work you and convince you to go to Guns and Gangs." She said it lightly, but there was an undertone of worry in her voice.

He fisted his hand through her hair. "I'm not going to Guns and Gangs, Andy. I got everything I need right here." He leaned in and captured her lips in a deep, languid kiss.

As he took to trailing his lips down along her jaw and neck, she sighed. And suddenly, she got it. It was like everything just clicked into place. The way he had said it so easily, she knew it to be true. While she would never want to hold him back, she believed him when he said he was happy where he was. And for the first time in longer than she could remember, so was she. No impulse to run. In fact, the thought of ever not being _here_ was what scared her now. All of her insecurities melted away and all that remained was certainty. "I love you, you know. So much. So if you ever decide to screw me over, I'll take your piece and shoot you with it."

He chuckled, and she felt the rumble through his chest. "I don't doubt that, McNally. But I'm not worried, 'cause I ain't going anywhere." He met her lips in yet another searing kiss, this time to seal his promise.

* * *

"Heart failure. It will be weeks before toxicology's back," Boyd grumbled, walking into the conference room and dropping the autopsy report on the table in front of Sam.

Sam was going blind on paper work and really did not need to read in black and white what he had expected and Boyd had just confirmed, but he still leaned his head on one hand the threw open the folder with the other, smirking bitterly at the report. "Even dead the bastard's a thorn in my side."

"We're offering Cassie Valens protection. Of course, she's not real thrilled with the department right now."

"Can you blame her? We let the guy who abused her get off. Andy certainly wasn't happy about it and she didn't get half of what that woman went through." He pushed the folder away and sighed. "You get the list of everyone with access to Cormier this past week?"

"Working on it."

"Hill's responsible for this. We just have to prove it. It would help it we had more bodies."

Donovan raked a hand through his hair then crossed his arms over his chest, his stance full of determination. "I can maybe get the brass to spring for one more. Hill's making bold moves, means we're getting close. 'Course the problem is, he's an intimidating son-of-a-bitch and not a lot of people want the target on their backs that being on this task force is gonna earn them."

Sam's dimples appeared in full force then. "I know someone who was fearless enough to walk into a bar with Anton Hill with only her gun and zero back-up. And had no problem breaking a few rules to do it."

Boyd narrowed his eyes. "Why do I have a feeling there's a lot that didn't make it into the report about Emily Starling's disappearance?"

"I don't know, Boyd. Why do you think that is?"

The detective grumbled something unintelligible. "Let me make some calls."

Hours later, Sam walked into 15 Division, his swagger firmly in place. He winked at his girlfriend, who was finishing up her shift working the desk with Diaz and without stopping to offer any explanation, headed straight up to Frank's office. His smirk fell off his face as he rapped on the door just as Best slammed his phone down. "You don't look happy to see me."

"She's my best rook, Sammy. It's bad enough I got you off chasing ghosts. Now I've got to give up my best rookie for God knows how long?" his Staff Sergeant railed.

"This isn't a ghost hunt, Frank. This is Anton Hill. He killed someone who was in _our _custody. That means not only is he circling the wagons, but there's a dirty cop out there. This isn't going to be weeks or months. I'm just asking for a few days."

"You're not asking because you miss your girlfriend, are you?"

"I'm not going to even dignify that with an answer. Now you said it yourself: she's the best rookie you've got. She's a damn good cop, Frank. And we owe her the chance to be in on the ground floor on this. Cormier got to walk for what he did to her."

"Cormier's dead, Sammy. He ain't walking anywhere now."

"Not the point."

Best sighed. "Two weeks. You've got fourteen days. Then she's back in uniform in my Parade Room. And you won't be far behind, you hear me? You're _on loan_. I'm not losing my best people to Guns and Gangs."

"You won't be sorry."

Frank got up from behind his desk and walked over to the doorway. "McNally! My office, now!" he bellowed.

Moments later, Andy hurriedly entered the office, glancing quickly at Sam with a raised eyebrow.

"McNally, starting tomorrow, you'll be reporting to Headquarters. You've been requested for the Hill task force," Frank explained.

"I've been what? But – Sir, really?" She looked over at her boyfriend who had a huge grin on his face.

"Go, before I change my mind and tell Boyd where he can shove his request. Go! Both of you, get out of my office. And don't get yourselves killed. I want you both back unscathed or so help me God!"

Andy waited until they were at the bottom of the steps before she turned and looked at Sam in confusion. "What just happened?"

"We need more bodies, and you, sweetheart, have got –"

"Don't even start. Seriously. I've been reassigned?"

"Temporarily. It's a good opportunity, McNally."

"That you pulled strings for me to get."

"We needed more hands, so I made a suggestion. You're a good copper. You have experience with the mark. Far as I'm concerned, you're the best person for the job."

"And Boyd agreed to this?" she asked incredulously.

"He knows you'd be an asset. So stop overthinking and say yes."

Her eyebrows knit together as she contemplated her options.

"McNally…" His voice dropped about an octave as he drew out her name, the way he had that night out in the parking lot of the Penny.

"We get to share the credit with Boyd when we arrest Hill?"

"Yep."

She bit her lip. "Okay."

"That's my girl."

Andy quirked an eyebrow.

"Sorry, _partner._" He saw Jerry come in through the front door and head towards his office then. He glanced down at his watch. "You've got twenty minutes left on your shift. I'll be in the D's office with Jerry when you're through."

"Okay. See you soon." She flashed him a smile then headed back towards the front desk to wait out the rest of her shift with Chris.

Sam took a breath, then headed towards Jerry's office, knocking on the ajar door but not waiting for an invitation before he slipped inside and shut the door behind him.

"Sammy. You get a lead?" Barber asked.

"Not yet. Listen, I need a favour, brother."

"Sure, anything."

"You have to buy Nash a pair of earrings."

Jerry laughed. "I have to _what_?"

Sam flopped down in the visitor's chair. "_I_ bought McNally a ring."

"A ring. Like a _ring_ ring?"

Swarek nodded. "But she found it. Kind of. I made up some story about picking up a pair of earrings for you when I was over on Yonge yesterday and convinced her not to look inside the box."

Jerry shook his head with a smile. "So now I have to buy Traci a pair of earrings to cover your ass?"

"Something like that."

Barber chuckled. "Yeah, sure. No problem. But you're covering a few hands next poker night."

"Sure. Fine."

"You really bought McNally a ring?"

Sam sat back in the chair with a grin. "Yeah. I bought the woman who hyperventilated before our first date a freaking ring barely two months into this thing. And the more I think about it, the more I want to give it to her. But…Well, I know her, and there's no way she's ready for that right now."

"So, Oliver and I will help you move her stuff in this weekend like we planned, then you bide your time. You'll know when it's right."

Sam nodded slowly. As far as he was concerned, the time was right now. He was not going to be any more sure a day, a week, a month or a year from now. But he knew Andy needed time. She needed time to get her footing, to believe she was it for him. He knew it was a good sign that she had agreed to move in with him – the she had taken his half-assed suggestion and run with it. However, he knew that she still had commitment issues, her mother's abandonment of her and her father understandably leaving an indelible mark. So he would do as Jerry suggested – bide his time, prove to her that he would never leave her. And once he knew she trusted him, he would pull out the ring and tell her that, as far as he was concerned, forever was not nearly long enough.

Half an hour later, Sam and Jerry were talking about the task force when Andy appeared in the doorway, having changed out of her uniform into jeans and a blue button-down.

"Congratulations on your reassignment, McNally," Jerry offered.

She offered a nervous smile. "Thanks. I'm sure Boyd's just thrilled."

"Boyd just wants his collar, sweetheart," Sam assured her. He stood up, looking at his best friend. "See you Saturday."

"Yeah, yeah, we'll be there. Oh, and McNally, the earrings, they're aquamarines. Traci's birthstone. Think she'll like them?"

Andy smiled. "She'll love them."

Sam mouthed a silent thank you, then draped an arm around his girlfriend and led her out of the precinct.

"What's got you looking so…smug?" Andy asked as he opened the door for his pickup truck.

"Not smug. Confident."

"There's a difference?"

"We make a good team, you and me. We're gonna take how well we know each other's moves and we're gonna use it to our advantage to bring Hill down. He's not gonna know what hit him. That's confidence, McNally. Smug – that's what he's going to see when he's handed down multiple life sentences with no chance of ever seeing freedom again."

"Ah, got it."

He narrowed his eyes as he studied her for a moment. "You're not really pissed at me for getting you assigned to the task force, are you?"

Andy shook her head. "I guess it's better than you going all alpha male and overprotective on me."

He chuckled wryly. "Right. Well, we've seen how well that's worked out before."

She laughed softly. "It beats riding in a squad car without you." She leaned up and kissed him. She felt one of Sam's hands fall to her hip and pull her in close, while the other planted itself by her head on the side of his truck. He kissed her back languidly and she felt her toes curl. "Take me home. We have a big day tomorrow. We've got a white whale to catch."


	13. Just Another Day at the Office

"Do I look okay?"

Sam raised an eyebrow as Andy emerged from his ensuite in a pair of black pants and a simple blue button-down blouse. "You look fine," he replied, sitting down on the end of the bed and pulling on first one shoe, then the other.

"Just fine?"

"We're going to work. It doesn't really matter how you look."

She furrowed her eyebrows. "Get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?"

"I'm trying to figure out who you're trying to look nice for," he replied, sounding a little more irritated than he knew he had any right to.

"I just want to make a good impression. You know, since my boyfriend got me onto this task force and everything."

"Andy, I told you, I simply made a suggestion. It was up to Boyd and the brass to give final approval. You didn't get this because we're sleeping together."

"So long as Donner knows that."

Sam narrowed his eyes at that. "Who the hell cares what Jason Donner thinks?"

"Wow, you really are grouchy this morning."

He grumbled something unintelligible and stood up. He walked over and grabbed his shield from the dressed and clipped it onto his belt then looked back over his shoulder at his girlfriend. "You ready?"

"What's your problem with Jason?" she asked.

"I got no problem. So long as he keeps his hands to himself."

"Seriously. You did not just say that."

"He's interested, all right?" Sam muttered. "And he's arrogant enough to think that if he just gets me out of the picture, he'll have a shot. I'm just giving you a heads up." He headed out of the room and down the stairs. He was zipping up his duffel bag in the middle of the entryway when Andy joined him a couple minutes later. He sighed, scrubbing his hand over his face. "I'm sorry."

She smiled a little. "No you're not."

He shrugged. "No, I'm not. Look, Andy, I've waited a long time for this. Didn't even know I wanted it 'til you whipped like a tornado through my life. Before you came along, I'd spent more time undercover than above the last few years, and since you've been around, I've had no desire to go back to that life. So we're finally here, in this place – and it's a damn good place. So when some other guy looks at you like he's just waiting for something to happen – and he goes behind my back and tries to get Boyd to convince me to go back under – well, I go on the defensive, all right?"

Andy was completely overwhelmed. She had finally gotten it through her head – and now felt it down into her bones – that he was never going to leave her. But it never occurred to her that he might have any fears of her leaving him. He always seemed so sure of himself. Wow, _turns out he was human after all_, she thought. She walked over and slid her hands up his chest. "You know that you're the best thing that ever happened to me, right? 'Cause you are. And I know I'm a little slow on the uptake sometimes, and it took me a while to figure out what was right in front me and all that. But I get it now and I'm not going to let anything mess it up. Even if Boyd were to successfully convince you to take an assignment with the squad, I'd wait for you."

"I already told you –"

"If you were to change your mind, I would wait for you. I'd hate every second we were apart, but I would still be here, warming that bed upstairs that it doesn't freak me out so much anymore to think of as _ours_. Just so you know."

Sam shook his head. "You're really something."

"Yeah, I am. Too much to handle there, Swarek?"

"Oh, no, I think I can handle you just fine, McNally." He brushed his nose against hers, and then leaned in for a quick yet telling kiss. "So, the task force. Be smart, be safe, and most importantly –"

"Follow my instincts."

"Follow your instincts. You've got incredible instincts, Andy. Trust them. You know this case as well as anyone. You're one of the few who's faced down Anton Hill and lived to tell about it. So use what you know. 'Cause we're gonna get him this time. I can feel it."

* * *

"Seeing as we're going to be working together…" Boyd let the sentence trail off, his pride making it difficult to finish.

Andy glanced up from the desk with a raised eyebrow, trying her best to hide her amusement. "An apology? What's Sam got on you?"

Donovan actually let a smile play on his lips at her response. "Not an apology. A truce. How 'bout I admit I've underestimated you and you quit making my life difficult?"

"I think I can agree to that."

He extended his hand and shook hers to solidify the truce. He then leaned down and said conspiratorially, "Swarek's got nothing on me. But the stories _I_ could tell…?"

"Next time you're at the Penny, first round's on me then," Andy invited.

"I heard that," Sam rebuked as he walked into the conference room, two coffees in hand. He set one down in front of his girlfriend then looked at Boyd with a smirk. "Just remember, anything that incriminates me probably incriminates you, too, buddy."

"Oh, I don't know, man. Remember the time –"

"Hill's bar just went up in smoke," Brady Wells announced as he walked into the room.

"You're freakin' kidding me!" Donovan exclaimed.

"It's true," Jason Donner confirmed, trailing in behind Wells with an angry shake of his head. "Swarek, McNally, take Talon and Wells and go over there, make sure the hose monkeys don't destroy any more evidence. Boyd and I are going to pay Hill a visit, concerned as we are about his welfare – and stall him from getting to the scene."

Andy jumped up, nearly knocking over her chair and her fresh cup of coffee in the process. "I, uh – I think Sam and I should be the ones to talk to Hill. In uniform."

Sam grinned proudly, crossing his arms over his chest. When his eye caught hers and he saw the slight shrug of her shoulders, he knew they were on the same page. Hers was a damned good idea. They were beat cops. If they showed up to ask questions about the fire at his place of business, it would not tip the hand of the task force. Of course, they were not naïve enough to assume he did not know about the investigation – he had been working hard to cover his tracks since Cormier's initial arrest and this fire had undoubtedly been at his own hands. But Swarek and McNally showing up in uniform might help convince him that the two investigations were mutually exclusive.

"Yeah, right. I don't think so, McNally," Boyd chuckled incredulously.

"No, she's right, Don. You and Jason show up and everything's suddenly connected. McNally and I appear on his doorstep, and it's all about the fire," Sam rationalized.

Donner leaned forward, planting his hands on the long table in the conference room and considered. "They've got a point," he admitted grudgingly.

"Sammy, I know you can handle this. But –"

"I can do it," Andy insisted.

Boyd sighed. "Look, McNally, I know you saved Sammy's ass at the Mermaid and you're –" He cleared his throat. "You're turning into a damn good cop, okay? I get it. But Anton Hill…Not to mention that this is personal for you. One of his men nearly killed you. You really think you can show up at his door and play dumb?"

"We're just trying to rattle his cage, I get it. I can do this."

Sam winked at her before looking back at Boyd. "She _can_ do this, Don. I'm tellin' ya, this could not be more perfect."

Boyd nodded, finally admitting that this could actually work – that maybe this was the kind of break they were looking for. "Fine. Good. Go. Maintain radio contact. And anything feels off, you take off."

Half an hour later, suited up, Sam reached over and still Andy's fidgeting hands as they rode up in the elevator to the eighteen floor of a downtown condo building. "Relax."

"I'm relaxed," she lied.

He snorted. "Hmm. I've seen you relaxed." He eyed her up and down a little lasciviously. "And that ain't it."

"Fine. I just – This seemed like a good idea in my head. But – Sam, I really don't want to mess this up."

"You won't. Just be calm, cool, and remember, we're not here to question him. Not really. We're simply making a notification. So just gauge his reaction, and we'll see if we can get anything that might tell us what was in that bar that he needed to destroy all of a sudden."

She nodded.

"McNally, just forget it's Anton Hill. This is routine stuff, all right?"

"Routine. Right."

He squeezed her hand. "And don't forget, you've got your awesome partner right there with you."

She rolled her eyes a little. "Oliver's never squeezed my hand like that."

"Good. First time he does, you tell me so I can punch his lights out."

She laughed, and she felt the tension mostly leave her body. The elevator dinged, signalling their arrival. Sam instantly released her hand, his features schooled as he went back to all-business Officer Swarek. She missed the warmth of his touch, but his confidence had rubbed off on her, and she was ready.

"You good?" Sam asked as they stepped out onto the floor, looking at the numbers on the door as they sought out eighteen-oh-four.

"Just another day at the office, right?"

"Just another day at the office."


	14. Nothing is Random

**A/N **I took advantage of the stat holiday to enjoy some down time and indulge in writing. So here is another chapter. I apologize in advance for what will inevitably be a longer wait until the next installment. xoxoxo mustlovecat

* * *

Sam shot Andy a quick look before he raised his fist to knock on the wooden door in front of him. A slight flash of his dimples and he saw her visibly relax. And in that moment, as he took her in – full uniform, hair pulled back in a French braid, little make-up – one thought ran through his mind: his girl was not really the mushy, romantic type, which was kind of unfortunate because he was starting to think he was the get-down-on-one-knee type. Not necessarily the put the ring in a dessert or sky-writing type, but he could definitely see a bended knee in his future. A bended knee followed by dust as she high-tailed it out of there. He chuckled to himself.

"What's so funny?" she asked.

"Nothing. You ready?"

She nodded.

Sam knocked on the door three times in quick succession and willed the thrumming in his chest to slow down. Men like Anton Hill did not scare him, but it was hard to put the last time he had faced him out of his mind.

"Well, well, well. To what do I owe the pleasure, Sammy?" Hill asked as he threw the front door open and took in the two uniformed cops standing there before him.

"I'm afraid we have some bad news, Anton. May we come in?" Sam requested.

Hill stepped aside, holding out his arm to wave them into the penthouse. As he closed the door behind them, he said, "Officer McNally. Still doing Swarek's bidding, I see."

Andy resisted the urge to scowl, willing herself not to be intimidated by the man. "I'm his partner. Where one goes…"

He snorted. "Partner. So that's what you're calling it." He waved his hand dismissively then. "What's this bad news?"

"Your bar just went up in flames," Sam explained, perhaps a little more glee in the announcement than there should have been.

Andy and Sam both watched the man for his reaction. If he was surprised, he did not show it. It had wasn't, he did not show that either. He just hmm'd and shook his head. "Twenty years and it's come to this," he said.

Sam cocked his head. He had worked under Hill for almost eight months, had got so he could read him. He was not the least bit shaken, or feeling the least bit closed in – he was certainly not ready to even consider admitting defeat. There was some plan, and everything had been perfectly choreographed. It pissed Swarek off a little. "You know anyone who would want to burn your club to the ground?"

Meeting the challenge, Anton smiled tightly. "Oh, I'm sure we both could come up with quite a list, couldn't we, Sammy?"

"I don't know. The list is pretty short these days. Landrys are gone. Henry Bergen. Tomasz Antonechuk's closest crew members met an unfortunate end not all that long ago…Unless Antonechuk is doing his own dirty work these days. I guess that's a possibility." Sam looked over at Andy.

"It's a lead worth pursuing," she agreed.

"You think so, Hill? You and Antonechuk having some problems? Any reason he would want to take your business out?"

Hill shrugged. "You never know. People have their reasons for doing things. Sometimes things that appear to be random really…_aren't_."

Sam narrowed his eyes. What was he talking about? Cormier's death? The fire? He chanced a look over at Andy to see if she had any insights, and noticed that she had deftly moved across the room and was subtly glancing around. And as his eyes fell on her, he felt like his blood had caught fire, the burn quickly moving throughout his body. It took everything in him to hold onto his control, not to pull out his piece and put a bullet between Hill's eyes. More than that, it was a fight to school his features, not to let his face, his stance, his hands, betray him. "We'll look into Tomasz. Any other possibility comes to mind, give us a call."

"Oh, you'll be my first call."

Sam was not proud of himself – at his faltering sense of control – but he knew himself. He knew that if he was not going to blow this entire investigation, he had to get himself out of there and fast. "Officer McNally, let's go."

She nodded, seeing Sam was suddenly struggling with something. "We'll be in touch," she said as she followed her partner across the living room and towards the front door.

"I look forward to it," Hill said dryly as the two uniforms let themselves out.

Andy wanted to ask Sam what was wrong as soon as they were out the door, but she waited until the elevator doors closed before she turned to him and raised her hand to touch his arm. "Sam?"

He caught her completely off guard as he grabbed her and pushed her back against the wall of the elevator, his lips crashing down on hers unrelenting and demanding. In spite of her surprise, her body responded on her behalf, her mouth moving with his, until the elevator reached the ground floor and dinged to announce its arrival. Sam pulled away, took a breath, and strode quickly across the marble lobby towards the entrance.

"Oo-kay," Andy said as she caught up to his long strides outside on the sidewalk. "Apparently going toe-to-toe with your arch nemesis turns you on."

Sam did not respond. He crossed the street to where they had parked the squad car and slid into the driver's seat, slamming the door shut before he allowed himself to give in. He slapped the steering wheel a few times, a low growl finally emanating from deep inside. By the time Andy slid in beside him, she was almost a little scared. "Something went wrong," he was saying as she shut the door, his tone quiet, calculated, as if trying to put together pieces that should not have belonged to the same puzzle.

"What?" she asked, her brows knit together in confusion.

"The park. Nothing is random. We're not just partners." His voice was low, and she was not sure if he was answering her question or talking out loud hoping it would help line things up.

"Sam, I don't…" She trailed off and her eyes widened in realization. "No."

"You were supposed to die that night. Cormier – Cummings. He was an enforcer and Cassie Valens was just a pawn. But something went wrong. You calling 9-1-1? I don't know, or maybe Shaw and Epstein being so close? Whatever it was, something went off the rails and now he's stuck cleaning up the mess. Cormier I get. But what was at the bar?" With each word, his hands tightened around the steering wheel until his knuckles were white.

"Wh-why?"

He looked over at her and almost smiled then at her naïveté. "Because you're the most important thing in the world to me. We barely knew each other and you walked into a bar and put everything on the line to back me up. Hill knew from that day that we weren't just partners."

"But –"

"But what? We were? C'mon, Andy, that night I would've ravished you in my car in the middle of the parking lot at the Penny if you'd let me and it wasn't just because we were hopped up on adrenaline. We were inevitable. Turns out we were just the last ones to figure that out. Meanwhile, it chapped Hill's ass that he let an undercover get close, that he trusted me and let me into his organization. I should've known he would never just let it go. But killing me would never give him the satisfaction that watching me spiral after losing the woman I loved would." Sam's grip loosened around the steering wheel and he reached up to rake a hand through his hair, his hand scrubbing the back of his neck. "Son-of-a-bitch."

"I need air," she whispered, moving to open the door.

Sam reached over and grasped her arm. "Not here."

She just nodded slowly.

"Division. I'll call Boyd and fill him in from there while I get the duty roster from the night of your attack. We need to let Best know what's going on, too."

Andy did not say anything, her mind trying to process everything and just finding it impossible.

Sam manoeuvred the squad car through the late morning traffic downtown and pulled into the Sally Port. He led Andy into the precinct and they headed straight to Best's office. They got Don on speaker phone and Sam outlined his suspicions to them simultaneously, feeling the vein in his neck start to pulsate once again.

"With Cormier dead, connecting Hill to the attack is going to be next to impossible," Boyd pointed out, his tone bearing the weight of the frustration they were all feeling.

"We're going to find a way to prove it Don, and we're going to add the attempted murder of a police officer to the long laundry list of charges he's going to be facing. You get anything from the scene?"

"No, the place has been gutted."

"Fantastic," Sam muttered.

"Let's try cross-checking the duty roster against the list of people with access to Cormier while he was in protective custody. Our best shot now is finding Hill's inside man."

"We're on it."

"I'll get those lists going," Frank said after they had disconnected the call with Boyd.

"Thanks." Sam looked over at Andy who had not said two words since they had entered the station. "C'mon, McNally. You need to hit something."

She looked up at her boyfriend as he stood, an eyebrow raised at his suggestion.

"Come on." He looked at their Staff Sergeant. "I'll be back later for the info. In the meantime, you get anything…"

"Yeah, I'll call. McNally, stay strong. We're gonna get this son-of-a-bitch," Frank assured her.

"I know." But she didn't. She had thought they had already caught the man who had nearly killed her. She had made peace with the deal that had been made, thinking it was for some greater good, because she had only been collateral damage anyway. But she was the mark all along? How long had they been watching her, figuring out her movements, planning some kind of death that would look like anything but a hit?

"McNally…" Sam startled her as she felt pressure on her low back and realized he was practically pushing her out of Best's office. Once they hit the bottom of the stairs, she thought he would lead her to the locker rooms, or maybe back to the parking lot to get his truck so they could return to Headquarters. But instead he led her down the hall towards the gym. He pushed open the door, unbuttoning his uniform shirt and pulling it off, leaving him in the t-shirt beneath. He grabbed a pair of gloves and handed them to his girlfriend.

"Sam, we have work."

"Boyd, Donner, Talon and Wells are still at the scene. Frank's working on getting the lists we need…We got some time. Now, despite the fact that I think it would be justifiable homicide, Hill's off limits right now. So put on the gloves, will you?"

Andy rolled her eyes a little, but she took the boxing gloves from him. She set them aside while she removed her own uniform shirt, then pulled them on and suddenly found herself full of energy that needed to be expended. She watched as Sam pulled on another pair of gloves, and then met him in the centre of the mat. They tapped their gloves together, and then all bets were off.

Andy was quick on her feet, but Sam's reflexes equally matched hers. They sparred for well over half an hour, working up a sweat and wearing off the aggression that had to be displaced before either of them did anything stupid and compromised the badge they were both so proud to wear. Then finally, worn out, Andy yanked off the gloves and collapsed down onto the mat, laying back as she struggled to catch her breath.

"You all right?" Sam asked gently, coming over to kneel down beside her.

"Sure, just great."

He smirked.

She looked up at him, her chest still heaving from the exertion. "You're my most important thing in the world, too, you know."

"Yeah? Makes me a damn lucky man." He chuckled as she closed her eyes to continue her recovery. He pushed himself up off the floor and walked over to the shelf at the end of the room and replaced both sets of gloves. He turned back and looked over at his girlfriend. Sweaty, her hair escaping the neat braid she had pulled it into earlier, her face flushed…His blood was boiling for the second time that morning, this time for a completely different reason. He cleared his throat and ran the back of his hand over his forehead, ridding himself of some of the sweat that still dotted his brow. "I'm going to marry you," he said, the words escaping before he could really question the intelligence of speaking them.

Andy's eyes shot open and she bolted up so she was sitting upright on the floor. "What?"

"Jerry didn't buy Nash earrings. You were holding your own engagement ring."

Her heart that had just finally stopped pounding in her chest started up its crazy thrumming again. "Sam…"

"It's not here, McNally. And I'm not asking. I'm just telling you that it's part of the plan. You're it. _We're_ it. I'm going to marry you someday. And I'm not talking some abstract someday in some abstract future. It's not going to be years and years down the road because I don't think we have anything to wait for except for you to be as sure of me as I am of you. But I get that finding out that you're a target for that very reason might set us back a little, but – Anyway, I just thought you should know."

Andy slowly eased herself up from the mat and shook her hands out a little nervously. "Oh," she finally said, her brow furrowing at the most nonsensical thing that she could have said.

Sam smirked a little at her response. "Sweetheart, I told you I wasn't asking. So you don't need to formulate any kind of answer, all right?"

"But…"

He walked over and cupped her face in his hands. "Relax." He leaned down and kissed her gently. "Let's go grab a shower and get back over to Headquarters. I'm feeling very motivated to get back into that evidence pile." He released her and walked over to the door. When he realized she had not followed, he stopped and looked back. "Andy?"

"What kind of ring?"

He raised his eyebrows.

"I mean, you've never bought me jewellery before so I don't know if you know my taste."

He laughed. "That's what you're worried about?"

She shrugged. "Well, it's something I'll never take off, so I want to like it."

"You're never gonna take it off, huh?"

Her face flushed.

"You'll like the ring, Andy. I have no doubts."

"But you have doubts that I'll say yes."

"No, that's not –"

"Because I will, you know. I mean, maybe not today, or tomorrow, 'cause right now the thought makes me want to break out in hives, just a little bit. But if you wait just a while – and I'm not talking about a _long_ while, really. Just a _while_. Then I'll say yes. But maybe you should show Traci the ring 'cause it would kind of suck if you asked and I said yes and then I didn't like the ring."

"I'm feeling kind of insulted, McNally, that you don't trust my taste in jewellery."

"I'm just saying…"

He grinned. "You're gonna say yes, huh?"

She walked over into his arms and hugged him. "I love you," she murmured into his neck.

He sobered, his arms grasping her more tightly against him. "I'm sorry that that's put you on Hill's radar."

"Don't apologize, Sam. We choose to do this job, knowing the risks that come with it. And if we let Hill scare us, then he wins. We're going to build a solid case against him, and this time, he is not going to get to walk away."

He ghosted his lips over her forehead. He took her hand then and led her out of the gym.

As they headed down the hall towards the locker rooms, Andy leaned her head against his shoulder. "Are you going to tell Jerry he doesn't need to buy Traci those earrings anymore?"

"I'm thinking about it."


	15. Wing It

**A/N **I am completely overwhelmed by the response to the past couple chapters. You guys really are the best. I'm sorry I have not yet responded to all of the reviews individually. I'm working on it, I promise. I've just been taking every free moment I can find to write. I have been feeling really inspired and I hope you are enjoying the result.

* * *

Sam lay staring up at the ceiling. He had been lucky if he got two hours of sleep. Andy had inadvertently awakened him as she thrashed around in the middle of a nightmare, and though he had managed to calm her down without her waking, he had never managed to get back to sleep himself. He hated that she was being traumatized by this whole thing all over again. It had seemed as if the bad dreams had finally abandoned her, only to have returned in full force the past three nights. He was not sure if she was conscious of them – he hoped she wasn't. It took every ounce of self-control he had not to slip out of bed, drive across town, and empty his clip into Anton Hill. He had already hated the man on principle but now it was personal. He knew that they needed to catch a break soon or the hatred he was carrying around with him was going to start eating him alive.

"You're all tense," Andy murmured, burying her face in the warmth of the crook of his arm.

"I'm fine."

"Such a bad liar." She kissed his bicep, then his shoulder, then left feather-light kisses across his chest before she finally moved up and met his lips, still not making the effort to open her eyes.

Sam cupped her face in his hands and kissed her back, opening his mouth under hers, feeling all of the tension melt away as he allowed himself to get caught up in her. He groaned as he felt her hands start to roam. Sometimes he still marvelled at the fact that he had never really understood the difference between sex and making love before she came along. Sure, there had been other women before Andy, some who had stuck around longer than others, a couple who he had even thought he'd loved. But he really had no clue before.

"This helping?" Andy breathed in his ear.

"Oh, no, you naked all over me is doing absolutely nothing for me," he quipped. He took her by surprise then as he took control, easily flipping them over until he was hovering over her. However, the playfulness quickly vanished as he took her in, a slight blush on her cheeks and a giddy grin across her lips and he was struck with the realization that this was what he would get to wake up to this for the rest of his life.

"Sam?" She reached up and laid a hand on his cheek, the intensity in his eyes worrying her a little.

"I know I piss you off when I get all overprotective, and I can be an arrogant jerk sometimes. I've got a temper. I've got a city salary, and I probably can't give you everything you want or deserve…But I swear to you, Andy, no man will ever love you the way I do."

Her breath caught. He had told her he loved her countless times. He had _announced_ that he was going to marry her _someday_, and not that abstract kind of someday but a real someday in the not-so-distant future. But as he looked at her in that moment, he was laying his soul completely bare. And she felt…_invincible_, higher than any adrenaline rush could ever make her feel. She bit her lip for a moment, and then she nearly knocked him onto the floor as she moved out from under him and hopped out of bed.

"Andy…" he protested. "C'mon, don't freak out on me here."

She yanked open one of the drawers in the long dresser that he had cleared out for her, and she started pulling out clothes.

"McNally!"

She opened another couple drawers, throwing a pair of boxers and jeans over onto the bed. "Get dressed," she said, her tone carrying a somewhat urgent quality with it.

"What? Why? You kicking me out? Because I had the nerve to tell you how much I love you?" he asked incredulously.

As she pulled on a pair of boyshorts and shimmied into her own jeans, she said, "Sam, just get dressed. The first question people ask is always, 'how'd he do it?' and I'm _not_ telling people that we were in bed…_naked_. I know I'm not exactly a prude, but I do have _some_ pride, you know."

"Wh…?" He looked at her gobsmacked until he could actually process what she was saying. And then he realized that Ashton Kutcher must be nearby with a camera crew and he was getting punk'd or something because Andy's tanned skin was perfectly untouched by any itchy looking hives. He narrowed his eyes. "You're not ready for this."

She pulled a t-shirt on over her head. "You said the only thing we were waiting for was for me to be as sure of you as you are of me. You're the one thing I've always been sure of, Sam."

He slid on the jeans and stood up, eyeing her a little warily. "Andy, we've got time."

"Time to what? I was supposed to die in that park. Every day, we put on the uniform not knowing what we're walking into. I know I'm still basically a rookie, but it took me all of six seconds to figure out that things can go sideways really, really fast. So as near as I can tell, if there is something really, really great standing right in front of us, what are we going to waste time waiting for?"

He shook his head with an awed smile. "You're really sure?"

She nodded, her entire being vibrating.

Sam quickly pulled his own t-shirt on, then walked over to the dresser. He smirked as her eyes widened when he opened one of the drawers and rummaged through, pulling out the small black velvet box.

"Your sock drawer? Very original," she quipped.

"Did you know it was in there?" he countered, raising his eyebrows.

Her face reddened.

He chuckled. He walked over to her and took her hand. "Come here…" He started to lead her over to the bed, but then stopped. "Is this okay? Or does your sudden sense of propriety tell you that we should be in the living room or something?"

"This is good," she squeaked out, her heart suddenly taking to beating a million miles an hour. He flashed his dimples, and she realized that he was teasing her. It was enough to almost make her roll her eyes, but as he sat her down, her excitement completely took over. "Oh, wow, you're actually going to…"

He quirked an eyebrow, effectively shutting her up. "Are you going to let me do this or not?"

"Sorry. Go ahead."

"Thank you." He dropped down on one knee in front of her, the box clutched in his left hand, his right holding onto her much smaller one. "You know, I hadn't really gotten around to figuring out what I was going to say yet."

"Oh. Um…Just wing it," she suggested.

"Right. Wing it. This is going to go down in McSwarek legend and you want me to wing it," he muttered.

"Well, maybe you should just ask me. I don't need a lot of preamble."

Sam shook his head. "Just for that, I'm giving you a lot of preamble, McNally." He squeezed her hand as she giggled at his retort. He felt a wave of exhilaration that warmed his entire body as he took in the pure, unadulterated happiness on her face. The nightmares, the task force, everything that had been weighing heavily on both their shoulders the past few weeks, all of it was forgotten in that moment. He cleared his throat. "If someone had told me that day you came barrelling into that rundown apartment that I was going to fall hopelessly in love with you…Admittedly, in the moment, I might have been a little aroused. Especially when you felt me up out on the pavement. But I wasn't exactly thinking, 'Damn, I'm gonna marry that girl.'"

"Oh, God. Not this again. Seriously?"

He grinned widely at her. "It's our story, Andy. And it's a hell of a tale. But see, we're just on the prologue. Because I did fall hopelessly in love with you. And I want to be with you, and only you, for the rest of my life. And I know that your deepest fear is of being left, but I can tell you this with absolute certainty that I will _never_ leave you. And whether you trust yourself or not, I trust _you _to never leave me." He caressed her hand with his thumb. "It ain't always gonna be sunshine and roses, 'cause, well, we're both too stubborn for our own good and we drive each other crazy a lot of the time – well, _you _drive _me_ crazy a lot of the time…But I'll do my damnedest to keep that smile on your face. And all you gotta do, McNally, is say yes." He released her hand so that he could open the box. He quickly chanced a look at her face, feeling some relief when he saw no hint of disappointment there. He pulled the ring out and tossed the box aside, taking her left hand and sliding the band onto her finger. "Say yes, Andy. Say you'll marry me."

"That sounded a lot more like an order than a question," she could not resist teasing him as overwhelmed as she was.

He chuckled. "Yeah, well, old habits…"

"You really want to marry me?" she asked then. "'Cause if you think I'm a lot of work now..."

He reached up and brushed her hair off her face, his hand lingering against her cheek. "Andy, you're it. Yes, I want to marry you. So what do you say? Will you do me the honour of becoming my wife?"

She nodded then practically flung herself into his arms. "Yes, yes, yes," she just kept repeating against his neck, treasuring the feel of his arms around her. "I love you."

He pulled back just enough to capture her lips with his, kissing her senseless. He was pretty sure that every cell in his body was pulsating at hyper speed. He had everything he had never even known he wanted right there and he would be damned if he ever let go.

Finally coming up for air, Andy sat back on her heels on the floor in front of him and held out her hand in front of her. The ring was gorgeous. A square cut diamond flanked by two small sapphires, with a smaller diamond on either side of the sapphires, all set on a simple white gold band. It wasn't big and showy, but the smaller stones made it a little more elegant than a solitaire. "It's beautiful, Sam."

"I haven't run it by Nash yet, so if you really don't like it –"

"I love it. It really is beautiful."

"It's a perfect fit," he pointed out.

She nodded, raising her gaze back up to meet his.

"You feel like bolting for the door yet? Or do I need to get you an antihistamine?" he teased her.

She shook her head, her eyes widening a little. "I should want to run but the only thing I want right now is for you to kiss me."

He smirked. "That I can do." He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her, there being no pretense of it being gentle or sweet. He stood, dragging her up off the floor and quickly worked off the t-shirt she had demanded he put on. "Just so we're clear, I'm allowed to get naked now, right?"

Her mind went blank as it often did when he appeared before her shirtless.

Sam took advantage and had the fly of her jeans unbuttoned and her own tee bunched up in his hands when they were both startled by the ringing of the doorbell. "You've got to be kidding me…" he growled.

The doorbell rang again – a couple more times insistently – followed then by a boisterous, "I know you're home, Sammy! Open the door! And you better have coffee!"

"What the hell is Oliver doing here this early?" Andy asked.

Sam ran a frustrated hand through his hair. "I swear I told him ten."

"Well, what are we going to do? Look at me!"

He followed her orders gladly, taking in her swollen lips, flushed cheeks, wide eyes…

"Sam!"

He chuckled. "I think we're going to answer the door, McNally. Bad timing as it may be, I'd kinda like to have my fiancée under the same roof as soon as possible. That work for you?"

* * *

**A/N 2 **Someone said in a review they hoped to see Oliver helping Sam move Andy into his place. Ummm...Yeah, so that is how this chapter started out. Then my fingers morphed it into _this_. I hope nobody is disappointed in where I ended up going with this! But for those that did want to witness the move, stay tuned…


	16. Change of Address

**A/N **Home sick today. Two redeeming features – I already got to watch 2.12 on Mystery this morning AND I got to write. With a wedding on Saturday and a community block party to help run on Sunday, I am not sure I will get another chapter out for another week or so, so I hope this (and the RB finale) will tide you over.

* * *

"Do you have any idea what time it is?" Sam grumbled as he threw open his front door.

Oliver took a large bite of the doughnut in his hand, and then glanced at his watch. Mumbling through a mouthful of Boston cream, he said, "Eight seventeen. Sorry I'm late."

"You're two hours early!"

Shaw furrowed his brow and finished chewing. "Nah, you said eight."

"I said ten."

Oliver just shrugged, thrust the box of Tim Horton's doughnuts into Sam's hands and brushed in through the front door past him. "Early bird gets the worm, buddy. Jerry's right behind me. Well, he was. Guess he got sidelined at Nash's. So you guys will do the heavy lifting and I'll point. Sound good?"

Sam rolled his eyes and shut the door. He ran a hand through his hair that was already sticking up in every direction thanks to having just rolled out of bed.

"Where's McNally?"

"In the shower. Like I said, we weren't expecting you for another couple hours. We just got up."

"Does that mean there's no coffee? I didn't bring coffee. Just the doughnuts. Barber said there'd be coffee," Oliver muttered.

"I'll go make coffee. Just…Come in." Sam waved his arms around dismissively then wandered into the kitchen.

Shaw followed his best friend, setting the box of doughnuts down on the kitchen table. "What's up with you? You're grumpy."

"From what I've heard, I'm always grumpy."

"Nah, most of the time lately you've been whatever's _not_ grumpy. Were you really asleep?"

"Said I just got out of bed, not that I just woke up. Been awake for hours."

"Then what –Oh. _Oh!_ You and McNally were…Ah, sorry, brother." Oliver snickered. "You know, fourteen years of marriage, you kind of forget about early morning—"

"Yeah, yeah, you can stop now." Sam got the coffee maker going then turned around leaned against the counter, scrubbing his tired face with his hand. "When Andy comes down, not a word. You hear me?"

"About coitus interruptus? Sure, lips are sealed."

Swarek rolled his eyes again. He heard the shower turn off upstairs and tried to keep at bay the image of his glistening, naked fiancée stepping out from under the water. This was not how they were supposed to be celebrating their engagement. He heard the slam of a couple car doors and took a breath, heading back for the front door and opening it just as Traci and Jerry stepped up onto the landing.

"What's with you? You don't look good," Jerry commented. "Having second thoughts about cohabitating?"

Traci just snorted beside her boyfriend.

"I said _ten_," Sam muttered in response.

"Oliver said you said eight. Does that mean there's no coffee?" Barber queried in concern.

"Coffee's almost ready!" Oliver yelled from inside.

Sam shook his head in resignation and ushered the new arrivals into the house. "Coffee's in the kitchen, Ollie brought doughnuts, and I'm gonna go jump in the shower real quick. Andy will be right down."

"What's with him?" Jerry asked Shaw as he and Traci wandered into the kitchen.

"Uh, he and McNally were…not expecting us this early."

Realization dawned on the detective and he smirked. "Ah. Well, he did say eight, right?"

"Oh, no, he said ten," Oliver said casually, heading to the table and making a grab for another doughnut.

* * *

"Shaw, Jerry and Nash are downstairs," Sam said as he walked into the bedroom where Andy was furiously pulling on some clothes, her wet hair pulled back in a messy bun. A glint caught his eye and his irritation melted away as his eyes fell on the simple chain she had around her neck, her ring hanging from it. He walked over and drew her into his arms, fingering the jewel with a quirked eyebrow.

"I told you, I'm never taking it off," she murmured, meeting his lips. "But if I walk down there with it on my finger, it will probably take Traci like two seconds to notice. I want you to be there when we tell everyone."

He smiled, brushing her bangs off her forehead before he leaned down and kissed her again, this time a little more languidly. "So are we doing some big announcement?"

"Nah, they're coppers. Let's see how long it takes them to figure it out once I put the ring back on."

"You said it, it will take Nash two seconds."

"Hmm. Maybe, maybe not."

"You're really not all freaked out?" he asked, not quite able to keep the incredulity out of his tone.

"Nope."

He leaned his forehead against hers. "You never cease to amaze me. I love you, McNally."

She grinned. "Are you going to start calling me Swarek once we make this official or whatever?"

"Nah, you'll always be my McNally." He kissed her quickly once more, then patted her ass as he walked past her to head into the en suite for his shower.

Andy slid the ring under the collar of her t-shirt, then headed down to greet their guests.

"McNally! How good of you to join us," Oliver quipped.

"Morning, everyone. Oh, thank God, there's coffee." She walked over to the cupboard above the sink and pulled out a mug, filling it almost gleefully with the hot liquid that was going to be her salvation. She tried to pretend she did not notice three pairs of eyes following her every move as she added a ridiculous amount of milk to her cup. Finally, she spun around and faced them all. "What?"

"Nothing," Jerry shrugged.

She furrowed her brow. The three of them were looking at her as if she had grown another arm or something, but finally, she just shook her head, taking a sip of her coffee gratefully.

"Where are your fellow rooks?" Oliver asked then. "Diaz and Epstein are the ones with the strong backs!"

"Uh, Gail and Chris have some Peck thing and…Well, Dov is kind of scared of Sam," Andy giggled.

"Scared, man-crush, tomato, tom-ah-to," Traci snickered.

"Well, we appreciate you guys helping out. There's really not a lot of stuff. Between Sam's truck and your van, Oliver, I don't think we'll need more than one trip."

"I wonder why Sam wanted us here so early then," Shaw could not help but throw out, his expression full of mirth.

Jerry and Traci broke out laughing.

Andy narrowed her eyes, knowing she was missing some inside joke. However, she was really too happy and excited to care. By the end of the day, her stuff would be here all mingled with his. She had always felt very comfortable in his house, but she felt giddy thinking of it as _theirs_. She had told him not that long ago that since her mother left, she had not really felt at _home_ anywhere. But she did with him. _Sam_ was her home. Wherever he was, that was where she belonged.

"All right, let's get this show on the road," Sam proclaimed as he joined everyone in the kitchen. He caught Andy's eye and winked at her.

They caravanned over to Andy's apartment, Sam and Andy in his truck, Traci and Barber in his car and Oliver behind in his van. Sam smirked as he caught his fiancée unclasping the chain around her neck then slipping her ring back on her finger. He could not help but notice that her gaze remained affixed on her new bling. Or that her hand was completely still – no trembling, no nervous twitches. God, he loved that woman.

Five hours later, _two _trips, and three permutations of the guest bedroom with her furniture later, Andy was vibrating once again. However, this time it was not from excitement. It was frustration. Anger, even. Cops? Really? One a freaking _detective_? And nobody had noticed that the woman who wore very little jewellery was sporting a shiny new ring? On the third finger of her left hand? Or that she and Sam kept stealing knowing glances and goofy grins? _Really_?

"Pizza's here," she announced, closing the front door and walking into the dining room. Everyone had been chilling in the living room with Sports Centre playing on the plasma, enjoying a well-deserved rest. However, Sam and Oliver eagerly jumped up and followed her, not bothering to wait for the arrival of plates before digging in. Andy returned from the kitchen with a six-pack of beer and napkins, rolling her eyes at the men. "Were you raised by wolves?" she muttered.

"That armoire was laced with lead, McNally," Oliver argued. "Worked up an appetite."

Jerry swiped a beer, concurring with his friend's assessment as he took a sip and then reached into the pizza box for his own slice.

Andy just shook her head.

Sam chuckled, reaching out and pulling her into his side, kissing her temple. "So, how's it feel? You got no place to escape to now."

She kissed the edge of his jaw, suddenly not caring about the audience, then replied, "Yeah, well, you're the one who's now stuck with _me_, the woman who apparently drives you completely crazy."

He winked, leaning down and capturing her lips in a quick, hot kiss.

"Save it for the wedding night," Oliver scoffed, shoving the rest of his slice of pizza into his mouth. At Sam's smirk and Andy's gaping expression, he shook his head. He finished chewing then swallowed. "Amateurs," he muttered, washing down his pizza with a gulp of beer.

"My money was on Jerry," Sam stage-whispered to his fiancée.

"Hey, I think I'm offended by that," Shaw retorted. "You guys are all giddy, and you think you're being all subtle with the stolen looks, and McNally keeps flexing her hand which is suddenly sporting a very nice rock…Just 'cause I don't wear a suit to work doesn't mean I can't deduce."

"What's he…?" Traci's eyes went straight to Andy's hand and her eyes widened. "Oh, my God! How'd I miss that?"

"Good question," Andy replied. "It's a good thing I didn't have money on _you_. _You _should have been the first to notice."

Traci narrowed her eyes accusingly. "You didn't have that on first thing this morning."

"No, but I have since we got out of the truck at my old place."

Traci's eyes shot up to meet Sam's. "You asked her in your _truck_?" she exclaimed in disbelief. "On the way to her apartment?"

Andy looked at her fiancé with a smug smile. "See, I told you. First question. See why I made you…Well, see!"

"No, I did not ask her in my truck," Sam defended himself. "But what's wrong with my truck?"

"I think I might have started falling in love with you in that truck," Andy said then a little wistfully. "That night after Benny died?"

"If you didn't ask her in the truck, then when? And why are we just hearing about this now?" Traci questioned.

"And does this mean I'm off the hook with the earrings?" Jerry piped in.

"What earrings?" Traci's head snapped up to look across the table to where her boyfriend stood. "What the hell is going on here?"

Sam chuckled in amusement. "Yeah, McNally, this was so much more fun than a big announcement," he deadpanned. He looked at their friends. "I asked her this morning, before we were so rudely interrupted by your early arrival."

"Actually, he _told_ me three days ago, but then this morning, he ordered me, and _then_ he asked me," Andy clarified teasingly.

He scowled. "Hey now, that's how you're going to tell the story? What about the fact that I was down on bended knee and everything? I should at least get some credit for that."

She giggled. "Of course." She leaned up and kissed his cheek, then held out her hand to show off her ring. "And, as you can see, I said yes."

"Just like that," Traci said in awe.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Andy asked.

Nash laughed at her best friend's expression. "You have issues, honey. I can't believe Swarek actually got all your stuff moved in here without you running out the door, let alone getting a ring on your finger. Although, wow, that's a beautiful ring. I would've said yes to that."

"Thank you," Sam said arrogantly.

"So, when's the big day?" Oliver asked, already half-way through a second piece of pizza. "I'm not gonna have to wear a tux, am I?"

"We haven't got that far. But your overwhelming support there, buddy, is making me question whether or not you're even going to be invited."

"Oh, I'm supportive. Would've been more so if you'd come to me for advice on how to propose, though. Apparently that's where you seriously needed some guidance 'cause now I've got to listen to you repeat this stupid story about you _ordering_ McNally here to marry you. I've really taught you nothing," Shaw sighed.

"It was perfect," Andy said seriously then, looking up at Sam with nothing but joy.

"Well, all kidding aside, congratulations," Traci offered first, pulling her best friend into a hug. "I am very happy for you."

"Thanks, Trace."

Jerry reached across the table and shook Sam's hand, then Oliver hugged him, offering him his own sincere congratulations. "This is good," Shaw said matter-of-factly. "Though I really don't want to wear a tux."

Hours later, their guests gone and most of the boxes from Andy's apartment either unpacked or stacked neatly in the guest room, Sam took her hand and started to lead her down the hall to the master bedroom.

"What…?" she asked.

"Well, we were on our way to celebrating this monumental turn of events this morning until Shaw thought it would be cute to arrive two hours early. I don't know about you, but I've been waiting all day to get you alone again and naked," Sam announced, his voice low and gravelly. "So, if it's all right with you, I thought we would go to _our_ room and I would make love to my ridiculously sexy fiancée."

Her face coloured a little at the look in his eyes. "Um, okay."

Sam leaned down and captured her lips in a slow, lazy kiss. He caught her off guard then and caused her to laugh as he picked her up and carried her the rest of the way to _their_ bed.

Afterwards, he was tracing absent-minded patterns on her back with his fingertips, his eyes heavy after getting little sleep the night before and all of the manual labour of the day. But as exhausted as he was, he had never felt more exhilarated.

"I don't think I'll have any nightmares tonight," Andy said, burrowing even closer into his arms. "I'm too happy."

Sam kissed her temple. "I'm glad you're happy."

She looked up at him. "And you need to just be happy and stop being so angry. Whatever you do, please promise me that you won't let your vendetta with Anton Hill wreck this for us."

"I won't, sweetheart. That I can promise you. 'Cause I gotta tell you, Andy, I was never happier to move furniture as I was today."

She laughed softly at that. "I can't wait to go to HR on Monday and fill out one of those change of address forms."

"Soon it will be a name change form. I mean, unless, you don't want to change your name. Which is completely cool with me," he backtracked, realizing he had been lucky to get this far and he did not want to push it.

"I think I suggested this morning that I have every intention of becoming a Swarek." She furrowed her brow. "Though, I guess that could get a little confusing in the squad room."

"McNally, I don't give a damn about things being confusing in the squad room. If you want my name…I think by now you've probably figured out that you can get me to give you just about anything." His eyes twinkled as he looked her up and down.

"You know I'm completely just using your for your body, right?"

"Sweetheart, I know you've wanted me for my body ever since –"

"I swear to God, Sam, you mention that alley again and you'll be walking funny ."

He chuckled. "And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I fell hopelessly in love with you. Come here…"


	17. Puzzle Pieces

**A/N **Sorry for another long lag between chapters. Real life and all that :( Anyway, I hope you enjoy this latest installment. Oh, and I borrowed one of my favourite quotes from Season 2 and injected it into my story.

Disclaimer: I still own nothing related to Rookie Blue, GlobalTV or ABC.

* * *

Sam pinched the bridge of his nose as he and Boyd walked out of Coroner's office onto the sidewalk on Grenville and headed towards Bay Street. "He can get his hands on anything. Of course he'd use something untraceable," Swarek grumbled.

"We knew it was a long-shot, Sammy."

Sam nodded. He was whatever surpassed frustrated. He had never been happier in his life – Andy had agreed to marry him without any trepidation, and they were officially under the same roof – but this case was like a huge black cloud hanging over everything. Andy even seemed like she would be willing to sit down and set a date without breaking out in hives or requiring his handcuffs to keep her in place, but Sam was actually the hold out. Until Hill was behind bars, or better yet, six feet under, a wedding was out of the question. The cynic in Sam told him that the public demonstration of their commitment to one another would be the perfect place for Anton to make another move. His fists clenched and unclenched at his sides. "But we're not getting any traction tying him to Andy's attack, either. It was such a messy hit. There's Shaw, Epstein, Nash and Diaz all on the scene in minutes. Hill would have been an idiot to think Andy wouldn't call in an assault. It was a hell of a chance to take. Something went wrong. I just can't wrap my head around it."

Donovan considered as they walked. "Cormier obviously wasn't supposed to get caught. That's where things went off the rails. He was expendable, sure, but Hill would have known that if we connected him to Walter Cummings, it was all over. No way we wouldn't make a deal. So how the hell was he supposed to pull this off and get away with it? McNally's a cop. Her first call…" Boyd smirked then, stopping in his tracks and turning to look at Sam with a satisfied grin on his face. "That's it. Her first call would have been to you."

"What?"

"You were on duty, no? Tell me you wouldn't have been her first call. Who else would she want to back her up? Sorry, buddy, but the only thing that trumps your rookie's penchant for finding trouble is her predictability."

Sam rolled his eyes a little. "She's not my rookie anymore. But you're right about something. We're partners, and even off-duty, we'd back each other up. But not that night. I left the house without my phone that morning. Andy had been sick, we were arguing over her going in…I ended up running late and I left the house without my cell. She knew I didn't have it on me, so she would've gone straight to 9-1-1. But it wouldn't have mattered anyway. I was a good fifteen minutes away at the time she called it in. Some public disturbance at the edge of Fifteen's jurisdiction that turned out to be a waste of…" he trailed off, his jaw tightening.

"They didn't know you were without your phone. _You're_ what went wrong, Sammy. You were supposed to be on the other end of that phone call." Boyd's eyes narrowed. "You were supposed to hear McNally die."

Sam's knuckles turned white he had his hands clenched so tightly. "Tell me why I shouldn't go over to Hill's penthouse right now and put a bullet between his eyes."

"I can't. To be honest, I'm not quite sure it wouldn't be justifiable homicide at this point," Donovan replied. "Smug son-of-a-bitch."

Sam was almost shaking with rage. This passed the point of perverse, the way Hill had planned to torture him with Andy's death. He ran a hand through his hair. "I asked her to marry me."

Boyd raised his eyebrows. "You what?"

"I proposed. The ring, down on one knee, the whole thing. You think it's all about the badge, Don. It's not. I was you, not even a year and a half ago, and it was all about the job, about getting the next bad guy off the street. My sister'd rag on me every other phone call, 'when are you going to stop running off half-cocked, and just settle down already?' I thought that settling down meant _settling_, sacrificing a part of myself in favour of something else. You know, I'm hardly ever wrong. But it happens." A quick flash of his dimples, then his expression sobered once again.

"You know that cops have a higher than normal divorce rate? Now, _two_ cops…Those ain't great odds, Sammy."

Sam scowled. "Now I get why you're still single. Has nothing to do with you being married to the job. Has to do with you being a jackass."

* * *

Jason Donner walked into the conference room and slowed his pace when he discovered that Andy was alone. "Where is everyone?" he asked.

"Talon and Wells are meeting with the fire marshal, and Sam and Boyd are over at the Coroner's office. Cormier's toxicology results are in," Andy explained, running a hand through her hair before looking back down at the evidence report she had been reading.

"Finally. Someone's figured out the meaning of urgent."

"You must have put the fear of God into them to get them to rush the tests," she said with a hint of a smirk, not bothering to look back up at him.

"Maybe." He hesitated for a moment, then walked over and pulled a chair around so he could sit down around the corner of the table from where she had settled. "Listen, Andy, since we have a minute…"

At that she glanced up at him, her brows knit together.

"I owe you an apology."

"Well, that was unexpected," she murmured, barely loud enough for him to hear. She took in the dark-haired detective, looking for some sign that he was playing her or had some sort of angle. Instead, she saw genuine regret in his eyes. "I'm not sure what you think you have to apologize for."

"For thinking that taking down Hill was worth more than defending you," Jason explained.

Andy sat up straighter and took a deep breath. "Hill's the one ultimately responsible, and Cormier's dead, so…Looks like you knew what you were doing."

"It's nice of you to try to let me off the hook, but we both know I became single-minded when I saw a way to get to Anton Hill. I was the one who initiated the deal with Cormier, a deal that gave him pretty much a free pass for nearly killing you. So I'm sorry, Andy."

She was not quite sure how to take what he was saying. He was so sincere, it unnerved her a little. "Thank you. Not that you owe me an apology, but I appreciate it." She chewed on her lip a little then just shrugged. "Look, let's just get the creep. I think we'll all sleep a lot better once he's behind bars."

Jason nodded. He went to get up, but stopped then when a glint from the fluorescent light caught his eye. He furrowed his brow, noticing the rock on her finger that had not been there last time they were in the same room together. "Swarek proposed?" he asked, nodding towards the engagement ring she was now sporting.

Andy's gaze fell on her new bling and she smiled, her whole body warming as she recalled the proposal – and their private celebration that had lasted most of the weekend after their friends left Saturday afternoon. "Yes."

"Wow. That's, uh – That's big. Congratulations."

"Thank you."

"I gotta say, I really never thought Sammy would ever settle down," Jason commented.

"Well, I guess he hasn't been motivated before," she replied a little tightly.

"So it _is_ true then – you're the reason he pulled his application to Guns and Gangs? You know he's the best undercover we have."

"If Sam wants to go undercover, I'll support him. I'll miss him like crazy, but I won't stand in his way. I didn't ask him to pull that application."

"No, but I doubt you're encouraging him out the door, either," Jason said, standing up.

"You've known Sam longer than I have, Jason. You know that _nobody_ tells him what to do." She bit back a smile then. "Why do you want him so bad in Guns and Gangs? I heard that last time he was in deep cover, he got chased down and tackled by a _girl_."

"Over-eager rookie. Didn't want to make her look bad on her first day," Sam quipped with a flash of the Swarek dimples as he walked into the room, Boyd right behind him.

"I hear congratulations are in order," Jason said by way of greeting, extending his hand to Sam.

"Thanks, Donner."

"So McNally didn't say. When's the big day?"

Andy looked at her fiancé expectantly. "Yeah, babe, when is that exactly?" she asked. She had been shocked herself when she was the one to bring up setting a date over the weekend. However, while he had not told her why, he had managed to put her off. The sudden role reversal had left her a little puzzled, but considering she had practically forced him to propose, she had not questioned him. Taking some time to just get used to the idea was fine with her.

Sam rolled his eyes a little at her tone. "Not soon enough, if you ask me. But we, uh – We haven't gotten that far yet."

Jason just nodded, then he cleared his throat. "So, uh – Toxicology came back?"

"Dead end," Boyd replied in frustration. "No evidence of any uncontrolled substance in his system."

Jason scoffed. "Of course not. 'Cause why the hell would we get anything that would actually move this case forward?"

"Well, we did put together a missing piece. The trip wasn't a complete write-off," Sam explained. He walked over and sat down on the edge of the table in front of his fiancée. "The day of the attack…I left my cell phone at home that morning. Remember?"

She furrowed her brow, not really liking to think back to that day – especially since they had learned that the intent was for her to die. "I remember. I started to hit speed dial when I was in the park but then I remembered seeing your cell sitting on the table by the front door."

He nodded. He looked back over at Donner and explained his and Boyd's theory. He deliberately kept from glancing back at Andy until he finished, trying to keep himself a little detached so the anger did not threaten to take over once again.

"There's still something that doesn't make sense. So, what, the stars just aligned for Cormier and Hill? There was no way for them to know McNally was going to be in that park that night," Jason started. "Hell, she was supposed to be on-duty, right? So once they found out, they would have had, what, twenty, thirty minutes to put all this together?"

"No," Andy said quietly. "I mean, yes, I was supposed to be working that day, but Mondays – I, um, I have a standing appointment Mondays. The couple times I had afternoons, I always arranged to take an extended break. So from the time Sam and I started seeing each other until that night…Every Monday, I crossed that park around the same time. Except that night I was coming back from the grocery store instead of…" she trailed off. She looked up at Boyd and Donner. "Sam and I didn't get the chance to tell our friends about our relationship the way we wanted to because of this. So if there are still some things I can protect, I'd like the opportunity to keep them private if that's all right."

"It doesn't matter, McNally. It just adds to our hunch that this was an elaborate set-up," Boyd assured her.

"Turns out _Cassie Valens_ was the collateral damage," she muttered.

"How much has she said?" Sam questioned then.

"Very little. But nobody really pushed. I mean, find me a domestic violence victim who wants to talk right out of the gate. Then we let the guy off and she finds out he's mixed up with the city's biggest drug runner?" Donner explained.

Andy stood up. "I think we should talk to her again. Um, and I think we need to look closer at her hospital records."

"What are you thinking, McNally?" Sam asked, fighting back a grin. He loved the look of determination that crossed her face when she felt like she was on to something.

"That maybe Cassie was not so much a victim as an accomplice."

"I'll call over to Fifteen, get her statements," Jason agreed. He headed out of the room, his stride having changed to that of a man on a mission.

"I'm going to go get a warrant for the hospital records," Don said. He turned and went to head out himself, but stopped in the doorway, glancing back at Sam and Andy. "When I was a rookie, I got the chance to work a case with your old man, McNally. He was a good cop. How's he doing?"

"He's good," Andy replied with a nod.

"Good."

Once Boyd was out of the room, Andy released a breath she had not even realized she had been holding. She buried her head in her hands.

Sam laid a hand on her shoulder. "Things are starting to come together, sweetheart."

She sighed and looked up at him. "I know. I'll just be really happy when this case is over. And I really don't want to drag my dad and his AA meetings into this. He's doing so good right now…"

"Tommy wouldn't care if it meant helping get justice for what happened to you that night, Andy."

She nodded. "You want to come with me tonight? We can tell him about the engagement."

"Uh, yeah. Sure. I mean, it's kind of become your time together, though. I don't want to intrude," he stammered a little.

An amused smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. "Sam, are you nervous about telling my dad that you asked me to marry you?"

"Please," he scoffed.

"You know he's not going to sit you down and question your intentions, right? He's never really been that kind of father. He was more the type to teach me how to pick a lock on my twelfth birthday."

"He also the one that taught you to give your training officer all that lip?"

"I don't remember my T.O. complaining about my lips."

At that, Sam smirked. He leaned down and brushed his nose against hers. "Oh, no, I like your lips just fine." He kissed her quickly, knowing he should not push it in a conference room in Headquarters with an open door. He groaned and stood up, putting a few feet of physical distance between them as he headed over and started going through one of the evidence boxes.

"So, nothing definite, but not soon enough for you, huh?"

"What's that?"

Andy shook her head. "There a reason you don't want to set a date there, Swarek? Getting cold feet now that the ring's on my finger?"

Sam looked up, meeting her questioning gaze, with no hesitation. "I've got no reservations about forever, McNally."

"Well, I'm not putting it off on account of Anton Hill. So I'm giving you two weeks, Sam. I have never been more sure about anything as I am about you and me. And this is coming from the girl who was practically breathing into a paper bag before our first date, remember? So whether or not we've got this task force wrapped up, we're setting a date in two weeks."

He grinned. "Well, then…Looks like I've been told."

She sat back in her chair. "Welcome to your future."


	18. One More Mystery

Sam drummed his fingers against the table a little nervously. It took a lot to rattle the veteran cop with years of undercover ops under his belt, but sitting across from his future father-in-law who had a very serious expression on his face, he was feeling a little intimidated. Andy had excused herself to use the ladies room and he had never felt her absence so greatly. He finally cleared his throat. "Tommy, listen, I –"

The elder McNally's hand flew up to cut Sam off. He sighed then before his hand returned to the handle on the coffee cup in front of him. "Now, I realize I have no business thinking my permission counts for anything after everything that has happened. I have hardly been a shining of example of what it means to be a good father. But that does not change the fact that Andy is the most important thing in the world to me."

"I know that, sir." Sam stole a quick glance towards the corridor in the back of the diner that led to the restrooms, not sure if he should be praying for his fiancée's quick return or not.

"She's happy," Tommy observed then.

"She is. And I plan on making her happy for the rest of our lives. I love your daughter very much. Kind of more than I thought possible."

Tommy McNally nodded. "It's obvious. And it's obvious how much my little girl loves you." He smiled a little sadly. "Not that she's my little girl anymore. She's grown up to be quite a woman. And she's a damn fine cop."

"That she is," Sam agreed proudly.

"No thanks to me." Tommy looked at Sam pointedly. "You take care of her. Now she'll tell you she's tough and doesn't need anyone to take care of her…"

Swarek chuckled knowingly. "Yeah, she will."

"You can take care of each other. You're both stubborn, but you're both also loyal and strong and if two people have what it takes to make a marriage work, I believe it's you two. And if I can give you just one piece of unsolicited advice: remember that the job is just that, a job. You can be good cops without making the uniform the most important thing in your life." He waved his hand dismissively. "That Callaghan guy never got that, and if it were him sitting across from me right now, I wouldn't be anywhere near this happy for Andy as I am right now."

"Thanks, sir. That means a lot." His whole face lit up then as Andy headed back towards the table. As she slid into the booth beside him, he squeezed her thigh.

"So any progress with the task force?" Tommy asked.

"Unfortunately, there's this big divide between what we know and what we can prove," Sam lamented. He looked at Andy's father apologetically. "The attack on Andy in the park was a carefully-planned hit. We just haven't found any evidence yet to prove that Anton Hill is behind it."

Tommy's brow furrowed as the partners filled him in on what they had discovered over the past few days. Hearing that his daughter was not just the victim of a circumstance but that she was the target of one of the city's most dangerous criminals left him cold.

"Dad, you're going to be late for your meeting if we don't get going," Andy finally said.

Sam waved at the waitress to bring the cheque over.

"Hill's got someone in dispatch," Tommy said as he pulled some bills from his wallet to cover the bill after a short disagreement with his soon-to-be son-in-law. "Someone made sure you were the one sent to that disturbance call across district, Sam."

Swarek nodded. "That's what I'm thinking."

"They would also know who was with Cormier and when while he was in protective custody."

"Always a cop," Andy smiled as the trio headed out of the neighbourhood diner.

The three walked the couple blocks to the church where Tommy's AA meetings were held then said their goodbyes. Sam then took his fiancée's hand as they started heading home.

"He seems good," Andy said with a little relief as they walked. "I've never seen him so focused and steady before."

"He's very proud of you, you know."

Andy looked up at him a little suspiciously. "What exactly did you two talk about while I was in the bathroom?"

Sam smirked at her expression. "Mostly we were comparing notes on what a handful you are," he teased her.

"Keep that up and you're going to become very familiar with the guest room, buddy."

He laughed, kissing her temple then wrapping an arm around her as they walked.

"Um, where are we going?" she asked after a couple minutes as she took in her surroundings.

"Home."

"This isn't…" she trailed off, furrowing her brow. She stopped walking. "Sam, this is going to take us blocks out of our way."

"Andy, not tonight."

She was about to argue that she did not need to be protected by avoiding the park, but stopped herself when she took in the expression on his face. Sometimes, she forgot that she was not the only one this happened to. She took his hand and leaned up and kissed him quickly. "If we're going this way, will you buy me ice cream?"

"It's five degrees, McNally, and you want ice cream?"

"Yep. Gold medal ribbon on a waffle cone. Two scoops."

He took her hand again and started leading her back down the street. "Two scoops coming up."

They walked the next few blocks in comfortable silence, and then reached the small plaza that held a Baskin Robbins along with a convenience store, a bank, a pharmacy and a few other independent shops. Sam opened the door to the ice cream shop and was about to walk in behind his fiancée, then stopped as something caught his eye.

"Sam?"

He grinned at Andy, pulling out his wallet. "Go on in. I'll meet you back here in a minute."

"Why, where are you going?" she asked.

He nudged her inside. "Just go get your waffle cone."

"But don't you want something?"

"Nah, I'll just finish yours when you realize you really only wanted a single scoop." He palmed her a five dollar bill, waited until she was in line inside, then headed down the plaza.

When Andy emerged from the ice cream shop five minutes later, happily licking her cone like a giddy child, Sam pushed himself off the wall, one hand behind his back. "Hey, beautiful," he greeted.

"Where'd you go?" she asked around a mouth full of ice cream.

He flashed his dimples, pulling his hand out from behind his back and producing a small bouquet of gerbera daisies. "I was getting you these."

"You got me flowers? You know that gerberas are my favourite," she said softly.

"I know. But do you realize I've never given you flowers before? Really, McNally, agreeing to marry a man who's never bought you flowers? You really should considering raising your standards there," he teased her.

She laughed softly.

"You were right about something earlier."

"I know it seems to happen rarely as far as you're concerned, but you don't have to sound so surprised," Andy deadpanned.

He shook his head, wrapping an arm around her and nudging her towards the street so they could continue their path home. "Yeah, well, my point being: putting off setting a date because of Anton Hill gives him way too much power over us. He already got too close to taking you away from me. I'm not letting him screw with us anymore."

"So you want to set a date?"

He nodded.

"Okay." She grinned excitedly until a drip of ice cream onto her hand brought her back down to earth. "Oh, um – Here…" She thrust the ice cream cone into his free hand, wiped the dripping remnants of it from her hand with the napkins she had taken, and then took the flowers from him. She inhaled their fragrance, her smile never wavering. "You are the best."

"Yep. You're very lucky." His dimples on full strength, he took a bite of the ice cream. "It's almost freezing out here and you wanted ice cream. Maybe I should be questioning _my_ standards."

"Shut up or there'll be no date to set."

"Oh, I'm not worried, McNally. You can't live without me." He took another lick of the ice cream then handed it back to her, taking back the flowers so she could finish her treat. "So when do you want to do this?"

"I don't know. When do you want to do it?"

Sam smirked. "You feel like you're about to break out in hives there?"

"No, I just – I don't even know where to start. I mean, can we decide on when if we don't know _where_ we are going to get married? I don't really want anything big. Do you?" She scrunched up her nose. "Do I have to invite my mom?"

"Sweetheart, you can invite – or not invite – whomever you want."

"Maybe I _should_ invite her. I don't know. And – _Sam_, I haven't even met Sarah yet!" she said in a near-panic then.

"I know. I was thinking we should head down there this weekend. She's been bugging me to bring you down every time I've talked to her lately. I don't think she's convinced you really exist."

She took another few licks of her ice cream, furrowing her brow in contemplation. "What have you told her about me?" she finally asked.

"Ah, you know. That you're nothing but trouble and you're giving me premature grey hair, but the sex is mind-blowing so…"

She hip-checked him. "Jerk. Anymore talk like that and you won't be having any more of that mind-blowing sex. And premature my ass. Most men have already started greying once they get as old as _you_," she shot back.

He leaned down and took a big bite of her ice cream in retaliation.

"Real mature."

He just grinned at her.

Andy continued working on her ice cream until she got down to the cone, then she handed it off to Sam, her expression warning him not to comment on the fact that he was right about her not getting through the double scoop. She then took her flowers back once again, holding them in one arm while she snaked the other through his. "So what did you _really_ tell your sister about me? I mean, is she going to like me?"

"I pulled my application from Guns and Gangs because I don't want to leave you. You've got a friend for life, Andy." He chucked what was left of the ice cream cone in a trashcan they passed on the sidewalk, then pulled his fiancée close. "Look, we'll go to St Catherine's this weekend and you can meet my family. And in the meantime, think about what kind of wedding you want. 'Cause I don't care where or when we get married, I just want you to be my wife."

"It would be nice to get married outside. But it's risky, and the weather's starting to turn so that means waiting until at least spring. I don't want to wait that long."

Sam raised his eyebrows, but did not comment. That she was as eager to marry him as he was her warmed his entire being. "I love you, Andy. And as long as we remember that it's what comes after the wedding that matters, everything else will take care of itself, okay? We'll figure it out."

"Just one more mystery to solve," she quipped. "We really can't leave it at the office, can we?"


	19. Family Ties

"This is so frustrating," Andy sighed, slamming the file containing evidence report she had been reading shut and sliding it down the table.

Boyd glanced up from the file he was going through himself. He furrowed his brow at the expression on Andy's face. He took a breath and got up, wandering over until he was across from her. He pulled out a nearby chair to straddle it. "McNally? Don't go there. You start giving up and Hill wins."

She ran a hand through her hair and glanced up at him a little warily. "I don't want him to win. But it's like there's no possible way to pin anything on him. He's _that_ good."

"Nobody's that good. Somewhere in here is a mistake. Something he failed to hide, someone he shouldn't have spoken to, _something_. And we're going to find it."

She fidgeted with her engagement ring. "Sam told me I should maybe take this off. It _killed _him to suggest it, but Hill's the one person who's ever gotten to him like this. I've never seen anyone else make him so angry. Not even me when I screwed up really bad," she said quietly.

Boyd hesitated then reached up and unclasped the simple silver chain he wore around his neck. He handed it to Andy. "Sammy's right. Hill took out a hit when all he knew was that you were Swarek's partner and maybe girlfriend. You go flaunting your engagement, and you're an even bigger target. I know that ring means something, so if you want to wear it, tuck it under your shirt and you can still have it close to your heart."

Andy took the chain but just stared at it.

Knowing she was not going to do it herself, Donovan reached over and slid her ring off and laced the chain through it. He stood up and leaned over then, clasping the chain around her neck. "I know you think I'm a jerk and you don't like me very much, but that doesn't mean I want something to happen to you." As an afterthought, he added, "And I'm not the mole either."

Andy's lip quirked as she adjusted the chain under her shirt and flipped her hair back over her shoulder. "Never even occurred to me."

"Sure it did, McNally. Sad thing is, everyone's a suspect now since Dispatch came back clean, eh? Donner's been chasing Hill even longer than Sammy has and I still considered pulling his financials," Boyd admitted, sitting back down with a smirk.

"We're supposed to be able to trust our own. How can you do this job if you can't trust the people who are supposed to be watching your back?"

Don shook his head. "Uh-uh. You're the optimistic one in this group. Don't you get all cynical on me now."

"Was bound to happen sometime," she muttered.

"You can do this job and still believe in good things. Or so I'm told."

"I never honestly considered that you might be playing for the other side. But jerk definitely crossed my mind a time or two," she admitted then with a hint of a grin.

He chuckled. "Yeah, well, I guess I haven't had the love of a good woman rub off on me like Swarek has, huh?"

"Sam…He didn't need me to centre him. He had a family before I ever came along to remind him who he was when he came back from an undercover."

"Ah, yes. Sarah."

Andy raised an eyebrow. "You know his sister?"

"I was his handler, McNally. I passed a few messages along over the years," Don admitted.

"I haven't met her yet. That's weird, isn't it? We're engaged and I haven't met the one other person in his life I know he would do anything for. Sam said he's told her about me, but – I know both their parents are gone, which means that for a long time, all they had was each other. I don't think she's going to like me and that's why Sam hasn't taken me to meet her yet," she rambled.

"You really like to overthink things, don't you? Sam's never had a problem with his brother-in-law so I think there's some crack in your logic there. Besides, she hates when he goes under. If some woman has got him so wrapped up in her that he's staying put, she's going to like her. Thanks again for that, by the way. You just had to go make our best undercover decide that domestic life is a better option, didn't you?"

"Detective Boyd? This just came for you," a young officer said, poking his head inside the conference room and holding out a legal-sized envelope.

Don got up and headed towards the door, taking the envelope from the cop and narrowing his eyes as he felt the bit of weight. He quickly opened it, turning on its end and watching as a USB drive dropped into his hands. "Well, well, well. What do we have here?"

"Can I see that?" Andy asked, coming up beside him.

"Not until we get a pair of gloves." He glanced down at the envelope. "No return address."

"I've seen that flash drive before, Don."

"McNally, these things all look alike."

"I guess, but..."

"What are you talking about?"

"Emily Valentine."

Boyd raised a curious eyebrow. "Hill's accountant?"

She nodded. "There's something else in the envelope."

He set the flash drive carefully down on the table then tipped the envelope over again. A worn five-by-seven photograph slid out partway. Holding it by its edges, Boyd pulled it out the rest of the way, his eyes narrowing. "Hill?"

"Looks like a family photo. I don't remember reading anything about him being married."

"He never was. Not that we know of, anyway. There's no date stamp, but I'd say it's, what, fifteen, twenty years ago?"

"You think that's his daughter? Looks kind of like him. More like the woman, though, but could pass as his kid," Andy mused. "She's pretty. Was. I wonder where…" She studied the photograph, the blonde-haired girl staring back at her with a big, toothy grin. Andy gasped then.

"What is it?"

"Nothing's random. We have to call Sam."

"This is a waste of time," Donner muttered as he and Sam walked up the fourth flight of stairs in an old, but stylish building in Bloor West.

"At this point, whether it's crossing something off the list or adding another clue – Everything takes us a step closer to getting to Anton. And I want him six feet under for what he did to Andy."

"She won't talk."

"Probably not. But sometimes even silence tells us something," Sam suggested.

Jason considered and reluctantly nodded.

They walked out of the stairwell and surveyed the row of apartments in front of them, easily finding five-oh-nine. They shared a quick nod, a silent exchange, then Jason knocked a couple times in quick succession against the door.

"Who is it?" a voice asked from inside, her tone full of suspicion.

"Toronto Police Service, ma'am. We need a quick word," Jason replied.

A moment later, the door opened before them and there stood Cassie Valens. She was dressed in a sweater and jeans, her long, blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail and her young, beautiful face clear of any make-up. Sam would have thought her innocent of anything and everything if he did not possess a mountain of foreknowledge.

"Ms Valens? I'm Detective Jason Donner. This is Officer Sam Swarek. We just have few questions for you."

She looked at both of them suspiciously. "About?"

"William Cormier."

"Will's dead. Case closed. I was told I didn't have to testify about anything," she said sharply.

"It appears that _Will_ was involved in a lot more than we first suspected, Ms Valens. We just need a few minutes of your time," Sam explained.

"I don't know anything."

"You probably know more than you think. Just a few minutes?" Jason requested.

She sighed and held the door open, an unspoken invitation to enter.

Sam and Jason walked inside the beautifully furnished apartment, both taking in the surroundings and finding them more telling than an entire line of questioning.

Cassie shut the door and turned to them expectantly, her expression impatient.

"I need some clarification about the night you were attacked in Trinity-Bellwoods," Jason started.

"Will's dead. It's over. What more do you want?"

"You saw a Dr Waldron at Toronto General?" Donner continued, pulling out his memo book and glancing down at his notes.

"I don't remember the name of the doctor."

"I find that hard believe. It's strange, actually. It's a teaching hospital – one of the best in the world, to be honest. But what happens is that people usually end up seeing a resident or even an intern in the E.R., maybe a full-on doc in real dire cases. Then once they're admitted, they're end up seeing a whole 'nother physician. But this Dr Waldron signed off on all your paperwork. You really don't remember? You were admitted for two days, weren't you?"

"So?"

"Your brother lives in Saskatchewan? Regina, is it? Or Saskatoon?" Donner asked then, deliberately switching topics.

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"You told the nurses that he was flying out here after your attack. He never arrived, though. I don't know, if it were my sister, I'd have been on the first flight. Wouldn't you, Swarek?"

"I wouldn't have even waited for a plane, Detective Donner. I would have just jumped in my car and drove," Sam replied. "And the guy who hurt my sister? He wouldn't see the light of day."

"Yep. Family's family. You do what you have to," Jason remarked.

Cassie's gaze averted.

Sam felt his cell phone vibrate in his pocket. He subtly pulled it out and glanced down at the text message Andy had just sent him. His eyebrows quirked. "Cassie, based on the information we obtained before Will's murder, he was more than just a foot soldier in Anton Hill's organization. Whether or not he ever shared any information with you, Hill's the kind of man that would not want to take the risk. Your life could be in danger."

"Your _protection_ did nothing for Will now, did it? But whatever. I'm not concerned," she insisted. She walked over and glanced out the window, rubbing her hands up and down her arms anxiously.

Sam moved over beside Jason and palmed his cell phone over to the detective with the text message open. Swarek's expression asked how he wanted to play this. The answer was bold, but based on what Boyd and Andy had in their hands, it seemed like they had just been handed a key piece in the whole puzzle.

Feeling lighter than he had in weeks, Sam pulled out his handcuffs. "Cassie Valens, you're under arrest for the attempted murder of a Toronto Police Service officer. I expect that there will be a few other charges added once the Crown reviews all the evidence."

"Wh-what? You can't be serious. I'm a victim!"

"Considering your birthright, Ms _Hill_, I couldn't agree more." He gestured with his hand for her to turn around and happily slapped on the cuffs. "Don't worry, sweetheart. I'm sure dear old dad will make sure you have the best lawyer money can buy."


	20. Breaking On Through to the Other Side

**A/N **Sorry for another unforgivably long delay. I was actually away on a much-needed vacation for a while without my laptop and no access to internet (turned out to be heavenly), then came back in time to have to do performance reviews and other such year-end stuff at work. Finally got around to finishing off this pivotal chapter. Hope this answers some questions...

* * *

Sam walked into the interrogation room, furrowing his brow as he took in the expression on his fiancée's face. She was standing in the corner opposite the door, clearly lost in her thoughts as she waited and whatever was going through her head, it was not pleasant. He glanced down at his watch, and figuring they still had a few minutes, he gently closed the door, not missing that the sound caused Andy jumped slightly. "McNally –"

"I can do this. She asked to talk to us, so she'll talk to us," Andy insisted.

"Hey, I got no doubt that you can do this. But – Andy, it's asking a lot for you to be here. You don't _have_ to do this."

"This didn't just happen to me, Sam. _You_ were the one they were out to really hurt." She shrugged a little then. "You're here. I can do anything."

He only had time to offer a quick flash of his dimpled grin before they were interrupted by the door opening. A uniformed officer escorted Cassie inside the room and sat her down on one side of the table. Sam took a breath, and then gestured for Andy to have a seat, before he took the chair next to her. He knew Donner and Boyd were on the other side of the one-way mirror, watching from the observation room, but right now, the case was in his and Andy's hands. "You said you wanted to talk to Officer McNally and myself, so feel free to talk," he started.

Cassie fidgeted a bit with her hands before she finally rested them on the table in front of her. "I will answer all of your questions and tell you everything I know. I just need your word that if Anton or one of his lawyers shows up here, you will _not_ let them in to see me. I don't want anything to do with my father, or the people that work for him."

"You were involved with his enforcer, Ms Valens," Sam pointed out.

"I _gave_ you his enforcer." She looked at Andy then. "_You_ would be dead right now if I hadn't gotten involved. The order was to have you killed but I made sure –"

Sam put up his hand to stop her. "I, uh – I think you'd better start at the beginning."

Cassie sat back in her chair and took a moment to gather her thoughts. "How'd you figure out who I was?" she asked then.

Andy opened the file sitting on the table and pulled out the photograph they had received. She slid it across the metal table top towards the young woman.

Cassie gasped slightly, her fingers trembling as she reached out and touched the photo, now safely inside an evidence bag. "Where'd you get that?"

"Special delivery," Andy replied with a shrug.

"Emily Starling. Right?"

Sam quirked an eyebrow.

"I don't blame her for getting impatient. It's been at least six months since she first tracked me down." For a moment, she looked at the photo a little wistfully, before she took a breath and looked back up at the two officers. "My mother…She was one of his girls. In his own sick way, he probably loved her; she feared him. When I was seven, she got the strength to leave. On my thirteenth birthday, she was struck down in a hit-and-run. We were just outside of Tucson, Arizona. But he'd found her. I still haven't been able to prove it." She furrowed her brow. "I ran before he found me, too. But six months ago, fate or dumb luck landed Emily on my doorstep.

"_Daddy_ was more than happy to welcome me back into the fold," she said bitterly. "And Will was just stupid. I told Anton I wanted to learn everything about the family business, but he was a little reticent when it came to the less-than-legal aspects of his world. So I made a play for Will. When he ordered Will to kill you, Office McNally, I offered to help. It was perfect. I convinced Will to just rough you up a bit, let himself get caught. If he turned on Anton, he would get immunity and a brand new life. And I told him I'd go with him. But I knew Anton or that atrial septal thing-a-ma-jiggy he had would catch up with him before I had to break it to him that I had no intention of going _anywhere _with a career killer." She looked at Andy. "Men seem to lose all power of conscious thought when a woman is offering them the world, don't they? I really thought he'd given you enough. But he's dead, and Anton's still out there walking the streets…"

Sam and Andy tried to absorb everything they had heard. Andy was not sure whether to thank the woman across from her or despise her.

"He killed my mom and I can't do a damn thing about it. So tell me that something I've told you here can put him behind bars," Cassie pleaded.

"Last person we offered immunity to…" Sam started, trailing off.

"Will – _Walter Cummings _– was responsible for at least twenty-two deaths. Him, dead, is justice in my books. Look, I'm sorry I didn't come to you from the beginning, but I didn't have any proof. But Will had things to say. Why wasn't that enough?"

"Because we still need solid evidence," Sam replied. "One person's word doesn't get us a conviction."

"What about the flash drive, then? If Emily's the one who sent the picture, she must have sent the flash drive. It had all of her accounting files on it. That should be good, right?"

"Forensics is working it over right now," Andy replied.

"Look, Officer McNally, I'm not asking you for anything. I know I was there that night – I had a part to play. But believe me when I tell you, it could have been a lot worse."

Out of the corner of his eye, Sam saw Andy tense up. Under the table, his hand found her thigh and gave it a gentle squeeze. "We think your father's got someone working on the inside. You know anything about that?" Sam asked Cassie then.

Cassie shook her head. "It wouldn't surprise me, but I can't give you a name."

Sam reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"I'm sorry," she said again. "I thought making sure Will got caught – I knew he'd turn on my father at the first opportunity. I thought that would be enough."

"It could very well be. It's just taking time," Sam sighed. "But now that we've got Emily's files…"

Cassie looked at Andy. "You were never in any real danger. I made Will promise."

Andy scoffed. "And of course an enforcer with _twenty-two_ deaths under his belt is a man of his word," she drawled.

"I would have called 9-1-1 myself because I knew at the very least, he wouldn't really hurt me. Look, if you have to lock me up, at this point, it will be worth it. So long as you finally put Anton Hill behind bars as well. He's only my father because he donated some DNA. He has not earned does he deserve my loyalty."

"You know anything about the fire at his club?" Sam inquired.

"No. Ever since the 'botched' hit on Officer McNally, my father has considered that proof that I should not be involved in his business. That, and he knew communicating with me could connect him to the attack. I, uh – I remember Will talking about the bar before as being the main point of business, so it wouldn't surprise me that most of his paper files were housed there. If he thought you were getting close because of what Will told you, he was probably trying to destroy anything incriminating. But like Emily's flash drive, he keeps back-ups of everything. There's, uh – There's a safe deposit box at the Royal Bank Plaza. He might have kept some things there."

Sam looked up towards the one-way mirror, hoping one or both of the detectives on the other side were off to get a warrant. He did not remember the safe deposit box ever coming up with Cormier.

"Look, Officer Swarek, you got closer to my father than anyone ever has. He _trusted _you only to find out he got played by a cop. As far as he's concerned, the only person who has ever betrayed him so horribly was my mother. Look what happened to her. He wants you to suffer. He told Will that Officer McNally put everything on the line for you, and the way you looked at her…It was obvious she was more than a partner."

Sam fought the urge to roll his eyes. Apparently _everyone_ knew how he felt about Andy before he did. And they had barely known each other at that point.

"I'm so sorry. Everything went sideways and it's my fault."

Hours later, Sam was pacing across the conference room, Andy sitting on one of the hard chairs with one knee pulled up to her chest, fighting the urge to bite her nails. One of the top tech guys from the Forensic Investigative Service was sitting at a table with a laptop in front of him, working to crack the encryption on the flash drive plugged into the USB port. Donner and Wells were chatting quietly off to one side, Boyd and Talon down at Royal Bank Plaza, executing a warrant on Hill's safe deposit box. The tension was running high, everyone feeling like they were _this_ close – yet not close enough.

"I'm in," Lowell, the FIS tech announced.

"What's that mean?" Andy asked.

"It means I've been able to access the files. But now there's a whole lot of numbers staring back at me. I'm going to need some time to make sense of all of this. Run some programs to find patterns…"

"How long's that going to take?"

"I don't know. Could be a while—"

"Meaning?"

"McNally," Sam cut in. "C'mon. Let's get some coffee."

She gave him a scowl, but when he returned it with a hard look that said he was not taking no for an answer, she stood up and followed him out to the hallway. "I thought we were getting coffee," she said when he did not lead her into one of the squad rooms, but instead glanced through rooms as they walked past, looking for an empty one.

"Second thought told me hopping you with more caffeine might not be a good idea," he explained, finally guiding her into a bare office and closing the door.

"Sam!"

"We're gonna get him."

"How can you be so calm about this?"

"Patience is one of my virtues." he quipped.

She narrowed her eyes. "No, it isn't."

"I waited you out, didn't I?" He reached out and took her arm, pulling her towards him as he sat down on the edge of the empty desk, one of the few pieces of furniture apart from a filing cabinet, in the obviously recently-vacated office. He guided her between his legs as he looked up at her. "Worth it, by the way. Waiting for you, I mean."

She rolled her eyes.

"We've got Anton Hill by the short hairs. But we've got to be smart and make sure we've got a solid case before we bring him in."

She sighed then, her hands moving to his shoulders. "If I hadn't screwed up my first day, we'd already have him and none of this would be happening."

"But maybe we wouldn't have gotten together then," he proposed.

"There's not some part of you, even just some small part, that resents me for ruining that op?"

"McNally, Jerry wrecked the op. You were just doing your job. And you got a killer off the street that day, remember? Besides all those things, I could never resent anything that got me you. In case you hadn't figured it out, I don't go around asking just anyone to marry me."

She offered a small smile.

He reached up and tangled his hands in her hair, pulling her down so he could meet her lips in slow, lazy kiss.

"This is very unprofessional," she announced without much conviction as he lips moved to her neck.

"Very," he agreed against her skin, though he made no moves to stop.

"You're kind of hot when you're doing your colouring outside the lines thing," she half-moaned, half-sighed.

"Hmm." He continued nuzzling her neck, his hands untucking her blouse and sliding underneath, splaying across her warm skin.

"Sa-am," she finally whined. "Don't start something you can't finish."

"Oh, I've got every intention of finishing..."

When Sam and Andy returned to the conference room, coffees for everyone in hand to cover their absence, Donner was just hanging up with Boyd.

"Perfect timing," Jason announced. "Which do you want first? The good news or the better-than-Christmas news?"

Sam's dimples quickly made an appearance. "We've got him…"

"We've got him. Between what our buddy Lowell there just got off the flash drive and the files in the safe deposit box, we've got Anton Hill. Swarek, you're with me. Let's go pick him up."

Sam grinned. "Happy to, my friend." He looked at his fiancée then. "Take that ring off that chain and put it back on your finger, McNally. We'll be setting a date tonight."


	21. A Good Bottle of Scotch

**A/N **I think most of you have probably seen the A/N in my recently published one-shot, _Talk_. So I won't repeat myself here. Except to apologize for this story falling by the wayside the past many months. Hopefully those of you that were enjoying it before will give it another chance and continue to read. xoxoxo mustlovecat

* * *

"Hey, Liam. Can I get two, um – Actually, I'll just take that bottle right there," Andy said, pointing to a full bottle of well-aged scotch collecting dust on a shelf behind the bar.

Liam raised an eyebrow. "You sure?"

She looked back over her shoulder to where her fiancé was sitting at a table in the corner, the tension just radiating off of his body in waves. Turning back to the bartender, she nodded resolutely. "I'm sure." So it would be the single-highest tab she had ever amassed at The Penny. Tonight she supposed it was worth it.

He retrieved the bottle and a couple glasses and handed everything to Andy.

She headed back over to the table and set everything down in front of Sam before taking a seat next to him.

Sam chuckled. "Trying to get me drunk, McNally?"

"Yep. Then I'm going to take you home and let you have your way with me," she promised with an easy grin.

At that, he shook his head and could not help the smirk that was there before it wasn't. "Well, there's that." He poured them each a glass of the scotch and handed one glass of amber liquid to his fiancée.

"I think we should have a toast," she said.

"To what? To letting Anton Hill slip through my fingers a second time in less than two years?"

"Babe, we've got him. Dead to rights. We might not have him in a cell right now, but as soon as he resurfaces –"

"He's gone, Andy. He won't be coming back just so we can slap a pair of cuffs on his wrists."

"Then he'll be spending the rest of his life looking over his shoulder and in the meantime, he's off our streets. I know it's not –" When he scoffed, she reached over and cupped his jaw, forcing him to look at her. "I know it's not how you wanted things to play out. Me, neither. But Sam, it's something."

He reached up and took her hand in his to remove it from his face so he could drink, but instead the alcohol was momentarily forgotten as he took in the rock now adorning her third finger. "You're wearing your ring."

"Yeah, I am. Because I'm proud to be your fiancée and I'm not going to let some bad guy – who, by the way, is nothing but a coward – rule our life anymore."

He offered a small smile at that then picked up his glass and knocked back a swig of the alcohol. "You've got a point, McNally."

Andy bit her lip, tapping her fingers against the table while he drank down most of his glass, leaving her own untouched. As she watched him, her mind spun at a frenzied pace, yet her thoughts were not jumbled but strangely coherent. "Let's get married," she finally blurted out when she saw his jaw starting to clench a little at the continuous drumming of her fingers.

Sam coughed, choking on the sip of scotch he had just taken. "What?"

"Let's just do it. I mean, Sam, what are we waiting for? We're not exactly, you know, traditional, white-wedding-in-a-church kind of people."

"Hey, now, I did get down on one knee when I proposed," he cut in. "Fully dressed, I might add. Well, almost."

She looked at him pointedly.

"Okay, okay. But Andy, I'm not just taking you down to City Hall. You deserve better than that," he argued.

"Sam, I – I don't care about the wedding. I care about what comes after. Look, you took someone with huge – I'm talking ginormous and yes, I realize that's not really a word – abandonment issues and made me realize that something good can come from sharing yourself and your life with another person. I trust you more than I've ever trusted anyone, and I love you like this ridiculous, crazy amount. You've always taught me to trust my gut and what it's telling me is that I want to be your wife." She reached over and took the glass from him and set it down on the table, then took a firm hold of his gun-calloused hand in hers. "I know that you think today was a checkmark on the side of the bad guys, but I don't. But even if that's the case – I saw what happened to my dad when he made his life the uniform and the bad cases and the bad asses that he couldn't take down . And I'm not – I'm not willing to do that, and I'm sure as hell not willing to stand by and watch _you _do it, either. We have a chance at a life, Sam. A really great life. And we almost didn't get it. So I don't see why we should –"

"Hey, look who finally decided to grace us lowly foot patrollers with their presence!" Oliver's voice boomed over the thin late-afternoon crowd as he and Noelle headed over to the table.

Andy blew out a breath and looked up as Jerry and Traci followed.

Sam squeezed Andy's hand then offered a nod at their friends. "We're here."

Jerry raised his eyebrows at the bottle of scotch. "You sharing?"

"Sure," Andy sighed, getting up and heading over to the bar to get some more glasses.

"What'd I say?" Barber asked innocently, picking up on her slightly put-upon mood.

Sam just shook his head, his eyes following his fiancée's every step. _Let's get married_ indeed.

"The news is all over Division. Hill skipped town?" Traci asked incredulously.

"Something like that." He turned his gaze back to them, but his mind was replaying Andy's words on constant repeat. He supposed he should have known better than to bring her to The Penny if he wanted a party for two.

"Well, at least now you guys will be back where you belong – in uniform at Fifteen. S'bout time," Shaw teased his best friend.

Andy returned to the table with four more glasses and slumped down next to Sam. She tuned everyone out as he filled their friends in on everything that had happened – from figuring out Cassie's involvement to the flash drive and the safety deposit box to the bust that wasn't when they turned up at Hill's condo with an entire team only to find him disappeared. She felt a little put off, unsure if she should take her fiancé's sudden animation as he relayed the events of the past couple days as a hint that her proposal was not something he even wanted to consider. Who was she kidding? She had practically _made _him propose. _She _had been the one to suggest they set a date. And _she _had been the one to say to hell with everything, let's get married _now_. Sam had her under his roof with a ring on her finger. He probably already had everything he wanted.

She finally excused herself and disappeared back to the ladies' room. Her intention had been to cheer up her fiancé, not push him down the aisle, and now she felt like she had made a fool of herself. He probably thought she needed to be medicated – what, the woman who had hyperventilated in the locker room before their first date practically begging him to marry her only a few months later. This was way past offering sex to soothe a bad day. This was like –

"Overthinking again, McNally?"

Andy jumped a little as she exited the restroom to find Sam leaning back against the wall in the tight corridor, one knee bent and his foot pressed back against the wall, his arms crossed as if he had all the time in the world. "Oh. Hey. Um…"

"City Hall will be closed by the time we get through downtown traffic. But if we leave now, I'm sure there's a wedding chapel or two in Niagara Falls still looking to make a quick buck. I mean, I'm pretty sure it'll be more than a buck, those places probably charge for every little thing, but I'd say you're worth it," he said with a flash of his dimples.

Her jaw was hanging somewhere between her knees and the floor and she stared at him with wide eyes for a moment before she could even find her voice. "Wh-what?"

"You said let's get married. So let's get married," he shrugged, the nonchalance in his demeanour absolutely nothing compared to the butterflies dancing around in his stomach. Thank God for years of undercover. But his nerves were not the result of doubts or fear – well, unless those doubts and fears were that she had been kidding earlier and he was now making a complete ass of himself.

"Sam, I…"

"Unless you've changed your mind?"

"No, but – Wait, how drunk _are _you?"

He looked at her in amusement. "You think I knocked back the rest of the bottle in the time it took you to go to the bathroom? Andy, I had the one drink. And by the way, I appreciate the gesture and everything, but you know that bottle probably cost a week's pay? That's seriously going to cut into the honeymoon budget right there."

"Sam…" She was gobsmacked. The woman allergic to silence had absolutely no idea what to say.

Sam stepped closer, backing her into the opposite wall and leaving her no room to escape. He braced his hands on either side of her. "Andy McNally, will you do me the honour of marrying me?" he asked, his voice low.

"You're serious." A statement, not a question. Because she knew him, and his eyes were dark and intent, the tone of his voice reminding her of Sam the T.O.

"I'm serious. You're right, sweetheart. We have a chance at a great life and there's absolutely no reason to wait. So let's go get married. To hell with Anton Hill. He's robbed us of enough time and energy, and he damn near robbed me of you. And you were right about something else: He didn't win today. 'Cause I've still got you and you're gonna marry me tonight."

She found herself nodding before her brain could even really process everything.

"So, yeah?"

"Yeah. Yes!" A bright smile on her face, she leaned up and kissed him hard.

He grinned at her when they came apart, though neither made a move to put any distance between themselves.

She hooked her fingers in the belt loops of his jeans. "You realize you just said I was right? Twice?" she teased him.

He brushed his nose against hers. "That's what you got out of that, huh?" he countered. "'Cause I was kind of laying it all out there."

"Uh-huh. That and that you want to marry me really, really bad."

"Hmm." He kissed her again, this time languid and deep, enough to elicit a moan from her.

"Or we could, um – You know, just go home and go with Plan A."

"Was that where I got to take you home and have my way with you?"

"Yep."

He pretended to consider for a moment before he leaned down and nuzzled her neck. "I like Plan B. But I'm completely good with following it with Plan A. Marry me."

The vibration of his voice against her pulse point nearly turned her to mush. She probably would have said yes to anything he suggested in that moment. However, him telling her he really wanted to marry her – nothing would ever sound so good. She reached up and raked her fingers through his hair. "Okay."

"Okay." He kissed her quickly, then finally pulled himself away. "Now, how do you suggest we get out of here?"

Her gaze moved sideways into the bar where Jerry, Traci, Noelle and Oliver were still gathered around their table, knocking back their very nice bottle of scotch. "Oh. Right." She bit her lip at his quirked eyebrow. "Um – You know, Sam, I think the stress of all of this is finally getting to me. I'm really – I just don't feel well."

He chuckled. "Well, you _do_ look a little pale, McNally."

She leaned up and whispered in his ear: "That might be the last time you get to say that."

"Nah, you'll always be my McNally. Come on. I better get you out of here before you infect the entire Fifteenth with this virus you seemed to have picked up out of nowhere."

As his hand found the small of her back, she said, "They're going to hate us tomorrow."

"We're off for the next three days. They can hate us next week. We're going to be _very_ busy having a private celebration for the next few days."

She fought back a gleeful smile. She cleared her throat as they headed back into the main room and approached the table. As they neared, she bit her lip, looking at Sam to play this out, knowing she could not lie to save her life.

"Hey, everyone. Andy's not feeling well. I'm going to get her home," Sam announced apologetically.

She just nodded, afraid to speak lest she dispel his excuse.

"Oh, sweetie, are you okay?" Traci asked worriedly, instantly going into mother-hen mode. "Maybe – You know you've been under a lot of stress lately, maybe you should ask Frank for a few days off."

"Already done," Sam explained, nodding in whole-hearted agreement. "Between the move and the Task Force…I think it's all just catching up. But you guys stay, enjoy the bottle of ridiculously expensive scotch and we'll see you later."

"Call if you need anything," Traci implored.

They both nodded, then Sam guided Andy through the bar and out the front door.

"When did Sam turn into such a bad liar?" Jerry asked after the door had swung closed.

"I don't know. But those two are up to something," Noelle agreed.

"No, they wouldn't…" Traci started, furrowing her brow.

"They certainly didn't seem as broken up as I thought they'd be about Hill's disappearance," Oliver piped up. "They bought the most expensive bottle of scotch in the place to commiserate with, but then left it for us? When has Sammy _ever_ wasted good scotch?"

"It's almost like it's a bribe," Jerry posited.

"Or a pre-emptive plea for forgiveness," Noelle suggested.

"But what would we have to forgive them for? If all they wanted was to be alone…Honestly, I was a little surprised to even find them here tonight. Figured they would have gone straight home," Traci said.

"Holy Mary Mother of God and all the Saints!" Noelle exclaimed. "They're getting married!"

"No, no way," Nash denied, shaking her head and laughing as if it was the craziest thing she had ever heard. "This is Andy we're talking about. And _Swarek_. He got the ring on her finger, but he's going to have to drag her to the altar. I know my best friend and she's – Well, there is absolutely no way she would agree to just run off and get married."

"And Sammy…" Jerry shook his head. "Well, Sammy wouldn't get married without his best man."

"And he didn't say anything to me, so…" Oliver concurred.

"What makes you think _you'd_ be the best man?" Jerry asked incredulously.

"What are you talking about? Of course _I'd _be the best man. Who else?"

"Me!"

"C'mon, Jerry, who at this table knows marriage? That's right. Me. And he already knows he screwed up once with that half-assed proposal. Really, ordering McNally to marry him? So there's no way he's not going to take my advice on the wedding and do this properly. So Noelle, my love, while I respect you like no other woman – aside from my wife, of course – you are way off base. There is _no_ way those two are getting married," Oliver concluded.

"I'm with Oliver on this," Traci agreed.

Jerry pulled out his wallet, counting out fifty bucks. "Anyone wishing to put their money where their mouth is? Because I think Noelle here is right. I say that next time we see those two, McNally will be a Swarek."

Oliver scoffed. "I will _so_ take that bet. Because you are wrong, my friend. You are wrong, wrong, wrong."

* * *

"I haven't even met your sister yet," Andy sighed as Sam's truck rolled down the QEW, bound for Niagara.

"She already loves you, sweetheart. You make me happy _and _I'm out of Guns and Gangs," Sam assured her.

"Yeah, but, I'm like depriving her of seeing you get married."

"If you're having second thoughts…"

"No, no, of course not." She reached over and laid her hand on his thigh. "I have never felt more sure of anything in my entire life. Just – Everyone's going to be mad."

Sam glanced over at her. "We _don't _have to do this, Andy. Yes, I want to marry you. But I can wait. If you want a real wedding –"

"No. I mean, _this is _a real wedding. Because it's you and me promising to spend the rest of our lives together and that's all that matters."

He grinned. "And we can throw a big party after, right? We'll do it right at The Penny, invite Tommy and Sarah. Get Boyd out to our end of town…"

"And Jason."

"Fine, sure, Donner too," he grudgingly agreed. Actually, on second thought, once she was his wife, it would not matter if Jason had been interested in Andy in anything more than a professional capacity. In fact, Sam had no problem showing off their happy union to the likes of Jason Donner.

"I like that. Yeah, let's do that." She giggled. "I can't believe that in a couple hours I'm going to be somebody's _wife_. _Your _wife. That's really cool."

Keeping his left hand on the wheel, his right slid down and encased her hand that had been resting on his leg, then brought it to his lips. "That's very cool."

"But you know what this means, right? Come next week, we won't be partners anymore," she said sadly.

"I know. But I gotta be honest, sweetheart: Given the choice, I'd rather be your husband than your partner. I trust Oliver or Nash – even Epstein – to have your back out there. But I wouldn't give up getting to go home every night with you for anything."

She nodded, sitting back in the passenger seat, her hand still surrounded by his. She looked over, taking in his profile – the man about to become her _husband. _She would have laughed if anyone had told the scared rookie that took down the man with greasy black hair on her first day that he would one day be her husband. Even as begrudgingly attracted as she was to the man who stripped down in front of her in the locker room, she never would have thought they would be here. Or the night of the blackout, when his touch burned her like fire. The best mistake of her life. Thank God she had figured out that he _wasn't_ a mistake before she moved in with Luke. Sam was the best thing that ever happened to her and she would be damned if she was ever going to take that for granted.

"McNally? Promise me you won't freak out."

Andy escaped her thoughts. "What? We're about to elope and I'm cool as a cucumber. What could possibly make me freak out now?"

Sam glanced into the rear-view mirror. "Because I think we're being followed."


End file.
